


The Barn

by Vesperchan



Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Sakura, But he's trying, Characters make their own angst, Curses, Eventual minor body horror, F/M, Knight and lionheart, Kushina is a full-on Mama Bear, Madara is a jealous idiot, Magic, Multi, Naruto twins, Pining, Sakura Centric, Sakura is a Witch, Spoiled Naruto, Witch!Sakura, and I add to it, and she's coming for your coven, bone witch, coven - Freeform, twisted child of prophecy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-08 17:10:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 58,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16433471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vesperchan/pseuds/Vesperchan
Summary: Sakura is a witch without a coven, and hasn't touched her magic in six years. But, after inheriting a house she believes to be haunted, she unwittingly unleashes upon herself the vexation that is a myriad of new faces-each one vying to be her familiar





	1. The Barn

**The Barn**

* * *

"People who have monsters recognize each other. They know each other without even saying a word."  
Benjamin Alire Sáenz,  
_Last Night I Sang To The Monster_

* * *

Sakura honestly hadn't expected to find herself in the situation she was in, bundled up on the edge of Providence, Rhode Island with the attorney to her Great Aunt's will. There were eighteen other family members, all closer in relation to the deceased, that the property should have gone to. The old woman had died little over a year ago and still the house was in a trust, unclaimed by anyone.

"Why I am here?" Sakura asked again, already knowing the answer Kakuzu would share with her.

"It's your turn to try and see if you will be the one inheriting these lands. The will stipulates six months residency in the property to complete the transfer of ownership. So far, none of the other relations have managed to last longer than a month."

"Why?" Sakura turned to face the impossibly tall and imposing figure who was supposedly as old as her great aunt.

Kakuzu looked down at her over the edge of his scarf. His eyes were obscured by the shades but that didn't help the shiver she felt in her bones. She knew his eyes were on her and she refused to flinch or back down. He intimidated too many people, Sakura would not be one of them.

"If you would like to know the details of each member's choice to disqualify themselves then you may ask them directly. I am not at liberty to discuss such confidential matters carelessly."

"I don't think you discuss much of anything carelessly, old man," Sakura scoffed, glaring at the shoulders of the long tan coat he wore over his three piece suit.

Kakuzu didn't turn back around to face her and didn't make any indication he had heard her comment, but Sakura felt it in her bones again, the sensation of something unseen, and knew he was laughing at the idea of her.

She cursed at him again in her mind, just because she didn't like him. She cursed at the cold too, just because she didn't like the way her ears stung with each breeze. Today might have been the wrong day to tie up her hair in a messy bun.

"Are you coming?" He barked over his shoulder.

Sakura grunted and hiked her own shoulders before following him up the long driveway, bracing against the smell of salt was in every breeze, even if the river filtering into the sea was several miles away.

Kakuzu stopped at the door and Sakura paused a moment to watch him work on the realtor's lock box for the key.

The housed was less house and more barn with a brick exterior and large green doors that might have once split open for cows and tractors, not houseguests. Off to the side there was a smaller green door used for main entry that Kakuzu finally opened and swept wide for her.

"It's a one bedroom one bath studio, but the square feet is what makes it impressive," Kakuzu begins.

Sakura ducks past him into the house and sees what he means about it being one room. From wall to wall there is the kitchen, living room, and bedroom all without walls or divisors. Towards the back there is a ladder that leads up into a loft area that had been used as storage. Sakura could see several seafaring trunks and crates stacked up and set aside.

Kakuzu led her on a short tour that seemed unnecessary considering the open lay out of the house. Sakura could see everything and guessed why some of the stuffier family members chose to pass the house over if the stipulation was that they had to live out of it for six months. It wasn't the most luxurious of places, but for someone like Sakura, it was perfect and really suited her well.

"Total property value is about 320,000. Or at least that is what it was estimated at last fall. You might be able to attract the right sort of buyer with more targeted advertising. Regardless, this may be yours per meeting the requirements of the will. See it here."

Kakuzu led her to a box on the wall next to the door that was small enough for a simple keypad. From his front pocket he produced a card with her name and a number on it.

"This is your code. Type it in every day for six months to validate the contract. Special circumstances such as vacations and overnight trips must be prior approved so that the code may be manually entered off site by the executioner of the will, which is myself."

"It seems like a lot of bother, but okay," Sakura hummed.

She reached for the card and Kakuzu relinquished it gladly. Turning it over she saw her name in gold ink as well as her birthdate month and day. The four digit number would be her code.

"Any last words of advice?" She asked, looking up.

Kakuzu was already packing up his briefcase after leaving some documents for her on the kitchen table. "My number is listed on all these documents for when you want to bow out. Good day to you then, Ms. Sakura Haruno."

He left without a word further.

Eight days and nothing but boredom troubled her. Sakura watched plenty of television, went on walks, bought food, and decorated a small corner of the house. There were so many interesting books to look through too, Sakura had trouble choosing just one. Three different ones lay half finished on the nightstand, marked in different places.

Sakura was a little frustrated with the itch in her bones, past where she could reach, that told her to be weary of something.

It was on the eighth night she heard the sounds and actually recognized them as voices.

Sakura stepped out of bed and grabbed the silk kimono hanging off the end to slip over her nightshirt, strapy and thin.

She turned the lights on and they flickered, dimmed, and went out. They weren't blown, but the energy wasn't eating to them to fed them. Something had disrupted that flow.

Sakura stood in her socks and waited for her eyes to adjust. She focused on the things she knew like the island and the chairs and the fireplace, and waited till her eyes could see them. There was enough moonlight filtering in to see by if she waited.

The noise came again and she grabbed one shoddy iron knuckle to slip over her left hand before looking around.

The house was one large room, a bathroom, and a loft.

The bathroom was cleared right away and nothing was downstairs. Sakura climbed the ladder to the loft and scampered up over the edge, left hand raised slightly. Things were darker in the loft but not by much.

Sakura stepped where she remembered there to be cleared spaces and got halfway before she noticed the steam trucks had been moved. Her path to the black had been blocked.

Instead of moving it back, she climbed over and shimmied under the low beams into the space with just enough moonlight to see by.

The back of the loft was empty.

Sakura went to turn back but a loud scream ripped through her like a force that made her bones shake. The sound came from nowhere and everywhere, washing over her and making her stagger. She looked up in time to brace as the heavy trunk moved across the floor right into her. She stopped it before it could smash her against the wall but her shoulder throbbed from the effort. She could feel the bruises blooming.

The scream was gone but the whisper returned.

_'Go back, go back, go back.'_

* * *

The next day Sakura ices her shoulder and pulls out a whole new set of books to read through as much as she can.

When the voices begin again at dark she stays in her bed, surrounded by salt, and sleeps through the night.

"So, have you figured out why the house is such a dive for the rest of the family?" Tenten asks her over tea and muffins.

They took a table outside and Sakura is content to melt in her seat and let the autumn winds have their way with her loose hair. She's developed a fondness for the cold she can't explain.

Sakura picks up her milk tea and levels it with her lips before replying. "I've got some theories. It's a bit of a mess and that side of the family is too petty."

Tenten snorts while Sakura helps herself to some more of her milk tea.

"That's a mild understatement. I mean, this is the half of the family you've been feuding with for the past fifty to sixty years, right? They're the complete opposite of you."

Sakura glared slightly, narrowing her eyes. "Oh, what is that supposed to mean?"

"You're you, Sakura."

"Elaborate."

The Chinese brunette rolled her eyes before tapping the edge of the table and looking away. She watched a couple pass before grinning back at Sakura, "You're unique in a way that doesn't fit anywhere."

"I feel like that's the nice way to insult someone."

"No, it's good, it's good, I promise. Hey, you're a down to earth sort of person and you're nice and kind. You don't put on airs or think less of others for their blood."

Sakura managed a grin and playfully fanned herself, fluttering her lashes in the wind. "Oh, do go on and tell me more about how amazing of a person I am."

Tenten's expression softened but remained playful. "You're also super humble and never vain, nope, not ever."

Sakura snorted before siping more of her tea. "What's that? I like getting dressed up a little more these days, that's all."

"For who?"

"For me."

"You don't even leave that new house most days. It's been a few weeks now and this is the first we've had to talk. You sure there isn't some crazy woman in the attic you're spending all your new free time with?"

Sakura smirked and it was devious and flirtatious and it might have made Tenten a little nervous or a little giddy or a little both.

"That would be awfully Romantic with a capital R, don't you think? Or maybe it would be more Gothic. I can't remember how long ago it's been since I read Jane Eyre all the way through, unabridged."

Tenten did her best to hide her grumble and her blush. Sakura loved to tease and to flirt all around the table, but that's all she after years of friendship, Tenten didn't feel like she was much closer to the girl that seemed so open she was transparent. Everyone was friends with Sakura, but then…how many of them could say they were ever more than that?

"You said you were doing a lot of reading, though" said Tenten.

Sakura waved a hand as if to dismiss the thought. "Yeah, but it's all mostly boring non fiction stuff on the history of the property and the town and the settlers here. I've been trying to dig into the history for some insight on the property problems. Not enough time for romance novels."

"That's a shame. I'd love to have enough time to sit at home and do nothing but read romance novels with tea."

Sakura's eyes danced with teasing. "What are you talking about, you'd go crazy like that!" she laughed. "You're too active to sit too long. We've only been here an hour and already I can see your leg bouncing.

Tenten sucked up the last dredges of her Vanilla Bean frappuccino, frowning around the straw when only air came up. "I can be sarcastic sometimes too," she grumbled.

She noticed her leg was bouncing and stopped it.

"Fine, then you can come with me to the local witch shop in town for some magic stuff because that's what I'm digging right now, and don't give me that look like I'm crazy, it's just mostly for fun! The Barn might be haunted, might not, but I'm going to have fun taking precautions. Wanna come?"

Tenten stood and followed Sakura without a hesitation.

* * *

That night Sakura drew her salt circle and laid out the quartz. In the morning the salt was still there, undisturbed, but the rose color of her quartz had blackened overnight and a long gash ran through the middle. Sakura threw the useless rock out and replaced it with another, and then another, and then another.

After fifteen dollars worth of quartz she went back to the woman running the shop to show off her handful of corrupted stones.

The old woman's eyebrows rose and she looked up to study Sakura more critically. Her brows stayed high when she saw that Sakura wasn't shaking or visibly disturbed.

"I'll get you the good stuff this time," she said before disappearing into the back.

* * *

It was almost three weeks before the first damage. Sakura woke up and found the canvas she had been prepping torn clean through. Another one was impaled on the point of the easel.

Hesitating, she removed the impaled one and frowned at the hole splitting the seascape she had painted several years back. For the first time since moving in, something close to anger curled along the base of her spine. More than when she had been hurt, the injury she suffered with the loss of her painting was twice as hurtful. She could heal from bruises, but with all the nerve damage in her left hand, she would never paint the same way and the number of pieces from her 'prime' were limited.

"You don't do this," she hissed to the air.

She set the canvas down next to the easel and reached for a book, one marked with bright neon sticky notes in a handful of colors. She went to a page marked with blue notes.

She hadn't finished the page only because she hadn't planned on following the plan it laid out, but she felt hurt and hurt motivated her well.

For payment she gave up some of her long hair, not enough to change her hairstyle, just a few strands. She left it in the silver bowl and mixed in the other items from the magic shop, including 'the good stuff.'

It burned together before she could reach for a match and suddenly the rolls of cloud came billowing out in plumes of stark gray and blue. It billowed impossibly far and thick from a bowl so small until the whole room was choked thinly, and then thickly.

In the midst of the room a figure flickered, caught like a lightning storm in humanoid form. It flared dangerously, warping like a bolt one way and then the other.

Sakura was a mouthful of muttered curses that weren't even magical in nature, but as she drew the chalk circle around the creature, they seemed to become magical based purely on her will.

The circle finished and the creature was trapped.

It started to scream and hiss and made moves for the edges only to flicker back to the center of the ring and try all over again with more annoyance. It twisted on itself and shrieked louder than ever as Sakura watched on.

Anger made her pleased for her success, but it didn't make her blind or dumb. The creature shrieking wasn't the one she remembered hearing. The cloud was also not done with her, as it continued to billow.

She turned to explore the room and felt new fear in her bones when she saw two-no-three different new figures held on by the smoke. She ran to draw their circles in chalk as well, only to realize after binding three more figures, there was on more in the loft, as more smoke snaked up that way.

"No wonder I went through so many stones," Sakura huffed to herself, climbing the ladder and trapping two more figures in white chalk circles.

Each figure trapped shrieked loud and fierce, but not one of them seemed able to make a dent in their bindings to escape. Eventually the smoke drifted out and Sakura was left alone with the nearly invisible figures flickering in their white chalk cages.

Sakura felt hurt in her hand and curled her fingers as best she could, trying with care to ignore the phantom sensations.

'They'll hurt more if you think about them.'

None of the figures took on features or forms that were visible after the first four minutes, and after another four, it looked like they wouldn't either.

Hitting the books once more, Sakura read and Sakura learned.

The seals in the diaries were hard to replicate, especially with her right hand, but after an hour of retries, she had the sigil of the owl eyes drawn in chalk on the floor. Parts of it were still rough, but she liked it all the same.

"Show me," she said out loud before pressing a stone into the center and letting an energy she hadn't used in years flicker and then flow out of her.

Sakura spent her magic and it came out hurting her left hand as badly as it had the day it wrecked havoc there. She ignored the pain and used her left hand as the medium once more.

'Even broken, my bones are still stronger than this,' she hissed to herself. She remembered what she was and it was like riding a bike after six years off.

The spell hooked and her magic sang in her bones before activating the seal and lighting up the rings of white around each figure.

The language of their curse spilled out in a voice she understood only because of the owl sigil. She had not seen magic of such a nature ever before, but what she didn't know she learned, and there was plenty of reading to help her with that.

The stone and the owl drawing were both spent, burning away after use, but the young bone witch ran back to the books and found a new one on curses. The ingredients were rare and hard to come by, but if Sakura didn't already have them, the apothecary trunk in the loft did.

Sakura climbed up and found the box that flipped open to reveal a dozen rows of drawers, each one filled with a different, old, ingredient that seemed too useless to value. Everything Sakura needed was there, even the blood iron.

The sun had once been young and swollen in the sky with morning, but now it was high and descending. Sakura worked on a new seal, this one far more intricate and tipped at each end with a unique ingredient.

When Sakura looked to the circles made from chalk she knew they were thinner. They wouldn't last forever. She had a few more hours left and the seal would take almost that long to draw again and again. She had to take the number of bodies and divide them by three and then draw enough seals so that each person was fed a magic that could break it out of the original enchantment. Her hand shook terribly and she remembered it was half a day and a night since she last ate, but she forced herself to work. It would be close.

'If only my damn hand worked,' she screamed at herself.

She filled the last seal and then drew a white line from the edge of each one to a new circle she stood in the middle of. She twirled a iron fire poker and then held it out horizontal. It was the best she had on hand for curse breaking. Iron wands were hard to find, but fire pokers were just as good with a little imagination.

The sun was low and burning a brilliant orange behind her head.

Sakura's magic came up like an obedient creature, sluggish at first and then eager. Too long it had been since she last used it.

"Iron to break!"

She slashed the air with the fire poker and there was a wave of magic.

"Blood to bind!"

Her Voice boomed as she drew the end of the fire poke across her arm, away from her hand with all the sensitive nerve endings. A rich line of brilliant red seeped to the surface, beaded, and dripped on the floor, hitting the white of the chalk. She held it out to let more fall.

"The Will of Mind!"

With the last of her spell, the magic swelled out of her, turning her eyes a blinding green. She felt herself bloat with magic, her bones sang with it, before it came out in a rush and followed the pattern of the seals like a train on a track. Those all lit up and the lines that connected each seal to the trap rings glowed too.

Sakura didn't see it, but felt it first when the layers of an old and evil curse peeled off the figures like scales on an old dragon. She was an ancient creature full of magic ripping off the old skin of an aged witch long since dead.

The curse manifested as a form for a moment and Sakura heard it.

"There is no room in the world for monsters like these."

Sakura looked with eyes still blazing green.

"Go, be at peace, your work is at an end. Let it be done, let them pass on."

The curse shrieked even as it faded.

"There is no passing on for these damned ones. Not until-"

There was no more said as the curse became a past thing and suddenly Sakura was on her knees, shaking all over from the rush and emptiness that came close to shattering her skeleton.

Hands reached for her and she felt herself being pulled back into a lap. Someone's palm was on her forehead, feeling the fever there and brushing back sweaty strands of pink hair.

She looked up and saw red eyes framed by lashes as long and dark as his hair.

Something clicked and it made sense as she began to drift.

"Of course I would be stupid enough to free a shinobi hoard."

Whoever he was smiled kindly down at her, but all Sakura could see were gleaming teeth before the world went dark.

* * *


	2. A Hungry Old Friend

 

* * *

Chapter Two  
A Hungry Old Friend

* * *

She was only out for a handful of minutes before she came back, tasting the after waves of magic. The roots of her teeth tingled and she scrambled across the floor, stumbling sideways. The world was a rush tilting and swirling. Being trapped on the deck of a ship in the middle of a storm would have felt no different.

The magic came to her hands and she flared it enough to bring it up where it would be malleable. It was old but it was an old friend; they picked up right where they left off.

_'A hungry old friend.'_

Sakura blinked and saw the room, the details she knew by heart, and the ones she didn't. There were new figures in the room that felt as familiar as the ghosts haunting her halls. She had done it, she had broken their curse and now they were physically manifested in her home like she wanted.

But they weren't moving on like she wanted.

"Who are you?" She coughed, tasting dust in her throat and feeling cotton where her tongue should be. Magic always left her feeling dry.

The one who had caught her first stood closest to her with long black hair and just as dark eyes. He was dressed in an old three piece suit finely tailored and flattering to his figure. She could see her reflection in the shine of his black leather shoes.

When he smiled it was all teeth and all danger. There was magic beneath those teeth, she could feel it in her bones.

"First and foremost I'm thinking I'm in need of showing my appreciation to the little tart," he teased in a tone made for smooth talking and straight up bullshitting. His voice was a lull as he reached for her again.

Sakura didn't react like she hoped she would as his hand neared, she was frozen in place, not knowing what to do. His hand drew closer only to be swat away by another figure. Sakura breathed a sigh she hadn't known she had been holding back as the new woman stepped forward, lips drawn into a tight line and eyes narrowed dangerously.

Her eyes were dark like her hair, but in the last shreds of light Sakura thought she saw sheens of blue to it.

"You," the male huffed, frown comical enough to be called a pout. "You really have to be here too? I can't get lucky once?"

The woman's eyes narrowed further, as if the sound of his voice was enough to upset her. "As if I could leave you to your own devices and not worry about the state of the world, Madara. You've meddled with your last witch."

The man named Madara raised both palms up and sighed comically. "I wasn't even in the mood for meddling. Is even displays of gratitude against your personal esthetics these days?"

"Don't act innocent," the woman warned, stepping to stand in front of Sakura so that she was a shield between the man and the bone witch.

Behind them Sakura could hear more bodies and turned to see a boy with hair as bright as red fire on the floor and two other males leaning over the railing to the loft, looking down.

A spark of concern ran through Sakura and she dashed to the boy crumpled in a heap and dressed in turn of the century rags. Sakura rolled his body over and pressed a hand to his heart, warming the chest area with her magic before letting it take on the function of healing.

Her green light seeped into his body, but before it could get far the boy's eyes opened and he grabbed for her wrists and twisted them painfully off his chest. He came up snarling and Sakura's magic went from a calming balm to staggering lightning. The boy tried to throw her off but she countered and wrestled him down, twisting his hands in front of him before sitting on his back. He thrashed but she pressured until that abated.

She heard chuckling from the railing but didn't look up. She felt like looking away from the boy would be a mistake,  _would put her in danger._

"See," Madara exclaimed teasingly. "I'm not the one you need to be worried about. Look at Gaara, he nearly bit her head off. Would a simple kiss to the hand been so bad?"

"Your kisses are never simple and Gaara was only reacting to what he thought was a threat," the woman sighed before approaching Sakura and the youth on the floor with both palms up.

Sakura looked up and let her eyes flare with magic. "What are you and who are you?" Sakura demanded. "You're in my house and you've been terrorizing me."

"No, no, that's not all of the story, Sakura."

The woman sat down on the floor, legs crossed. She was in a tight fitting equestrian riding outfit from the same turn of the century the urchin under Sakura seemed dressed for. The rest of her was beautiful, no matter the century.

"My name is Konan, and that was Madara and this is Gaara. There are others too, but I think you've not uncovered them all. We're…we're like you, shinobi."

"I'm not a shinobi I'm a bone witch," Sakura countered quickly. "Here we're called witches that use magic. Chakra is…what  _you_  use."

"But it was chakra that sealed us and only chakra was thought to be able to free us. You must be using chakra somewhat."

People had told Sakura magic and chakra were two sides of the same coin, called different things but sharing in the same nature. Sakura had never explored her magic or her history enough to know the truth, but this seemed to prove her suspicions true. Regardless, it didn't make the situation any less confusing.

"What are you doing here in my house trying to drive me away?" Sakura tried again.

"That bit wasn't on purpose, love," Madara interjected, stepping forward. "We didn't know what we were doing half the time we were trapped in the sealed world. We were lost in madness without mind or body until you freed us from that awful, thousand year genjutsu."

"You mean the curse?" Sakura asked.

Madara shrugged. "Sure, if that's what you want to call it."

"What were you doing trapped in a curse?" Sakura asked.

"Suffering, mostly."

Konan reached back to smack Madara with the back of her hand and glare at him. He glared back, but kept his hands to himself.

"We were at war on the wrong side, or maybe the right side, but the losing side regardless," said Konan. "We were sealed using a holy relic and the relic was shattered to curse us to a thousand years of torment. Many years ago our souls became tethered to objects collected and brought together and buried on the grounds along this property. We were mad inside the…you called it a curse." She nodded to herself before going on. "We were mad and did things the mad would do. We must have caused you so much trouble."

Sakura felt the boy under her give up on resisting the hold and go slack beneath her. His heavy breathing evened out too. He was still conscious, but he had given up on fighting her it seemed.

Sakura eased up and let go of his wrists so that he could slip them free and tuck them underneath him. She saw him glare back over his shoulder at her but Sakura still stood and let him wiggle free.

He kept his back to her as he stood, but didn't break eye contact and continued to glare over his shoulder the whole time before shuffling back behind Konan and out of sight.

"Please excuse him, he's a bit younger than the rest of us and had one of the rougher sentences inside the…'curse' as you called it."

Konan's voice was soft and pleading, reminding Sakura of a mother who apologized for her bratty child. It seemed like they all knew each other.

And they all outnumbered her.

Sakura was suddenly very defensive.

"What do you want now?" Sakura asked, holding onto her magic again. It was ready to use.

"Your name would be nice," Madara chuckled, not missing the flare of energy she drew up all around her. He didn't seem intimidated by it in the least.

"You're such a creep about it," hissed Konan before she reached over and slapped the side of Madara's arm. The older male flinched but his grin didn't waver. Maybe he liked annoying everyone as much as he did Sakura. Or maybe he liked getting hit. She had slapped him plenty of times by now.

Konan looked apologetic back and Sakura. "We're not here to hurt you or intimidate you in any way. We're indebted to you more than anything. I think right now it would be best if we sat down and figured out what the situation was before I say anything more, because I don't understand everything just yet, myself. I don't know where we are or when this is."

Sakura was still dressed in a long nightshirt and furry ankle socks that looked like foxes. She wanted to mention that her dress wasn't typical fashion for the times, but thought better of it and held the comment back between her teeth.

Konan had already turned and was leading Gaara by the shoulder in soft tones to the kitchen where Madara lazily sauntered in after them. The two on the loft railing leaned back and shared a few words in whispers before nodding and following the ladder down. They were both oddly colored in the dim light and Sakura wondered how much of that was her and how much of that was them. One looked blue skinned, the other appeared slate gray. Neither looked her way or acknowledged her.

Her mind was a mess, but Sakura turned towards the door and remembered she needed to enter a key code for the day before Kakuzu got worried or kicked her out.

Maybe he should kick her out of if there were relics shinobi were tied to inside the house. Sakura knew her great aunt had been a witch along with most of 'that' side of the family, she just hadn't known what type of witch or what she was really into. Sakura had taught herself mostly and hidden as much of her magic as she could. No one on 'her' side of the family practiced the arts.

Did Kakuzu know?

Sakura punched in her code and then reached for her phone left on the nightstand. She dialed the number and sat on the edge of her bed, watching from a distance as her meager fridge and food supply was picked apart to feed a host of magical intruders.

He didn't bother with a greeting. "You lasted longer than most."

"I'm not giving up the house just yet, I just typed in my code, obviously," Sakura hissed.

"Then what could you possible have to trouble me with?"

"I know why all those relatives left this place now and-"

"Then that has nothing to do with me. I'm not at liberty to help alleviate any inconveniences you may have thought you run into. If you think it's too much for you then I can file the paperwork and have you safely moved out before the week is over. Your third cousin should be contacted about this soon."

"I'm not giving up the house, Kakuzu, listen to me! I know what the thing was that scared off all the others and I need more information or some help on dealing with them."

He sighed heavily and Sakura could just imagine his expression. "I already told you I'm not allowed to help with your ghost problem."

"They're not ghosts, they're shinobi and they're emptying my fridge as we speak. The blue one just finished all my cold cuts for the week. What am I supposed to do with these adults?"

The line was silent for a long while.

"Hello?" Sakura called out, feeling her agitation grow.

"What did you call them?"

"Well, they're shinobi now, I thought they were ghosts at first and I tried to help them move on but now they're just….here. Do I have to keep watching them? Is that a part of the contract in the will, or is there somewhere I can take them? Mito did stuff like this, right? You should have seen this before."

"They're… corporeal?"

Sakura rolled his eyes at how slow his voice came out. He sounded stunned. "Yes, they're corporeal and mostly sane now. I've talked with a couple and the rest are just…oh my God that's all my food there, I'm done for. They've cleaned me out. I can't afford to take care of this many people. Classes begin soon and I'll be busy again."

She didn't say anything about being adjunct again for the second year in a row of vying for the same tenured positions. Sakura needed to continue to do the best job she could possible do or else the university could drop her like a hot potato, the same way they dropped a fourth of the adjunct faculty last year. Kakuzu didn't need to know any of that.

"Listen, I signed up for the house. These guys are extra and I can't take care of them. You have any suggestions or did Mito know anything about these guys that will help? She must have known something-."

She might have said more but his voice came in sharp and left no room for argument as he barked her orders. "Keep them there, hold onto them. I'll be right over."

The line went dead.

With nothing else to do, Sakura left her cell behind on her bed and stood to approach the kitchen where everyone was eating something, even Konan.

"Thanks for the food, kid," the blue skinned man laughed, tearing into another roll of cold cut meats. There were scraps left in the bag.

"I'm twenty seven, I'm not a kid," Sakura muttered, glancing sideways down the island at the redhead still glaring at her. She wondered if he was the little shit that ruined her painting.

"Regardless, you are a warm host. We thank you," Konan interjected. She sounded like the mediator of the group and Sakura didn't doubt it based on the gender disparity.

"You seem better after being fed and I just want answers, really," Sakura sighed. "I didn't know what I was doing, I just thought it would be like a normal exorcism. I've never had people…not move on."

"You've done this sort of stuff before, eh?" The blue one asked, mouth full of food.

Sakura shrugged. "A few times."

"What's that mean?"

Sakura ran her hands through her hair. "It's been a few years since I've had to use magic, okay? I might be a bit rusty."

"You seemed to be doing marvelously when it came to freeing so many of us. That's better than 'a little rusty' wouldn't you say, Kisame?" Madara asked, looking up at the biggest and bluest member of the group.

Kisame blinked before just then realizing something. He cursed carelessly to himself and started to wipe his hands on the front of his shirt. "Shit, sorry about that, my name's Kisame. Nice to meet you, princess."

She shook his hand stiffly. "You can call me Sakura."

"Sakura," Madara breathed, lighting up at the sound of her name. "How magical. It's a pleasure to formally be introduced, Sakura."

Madara edged out Kisame and put himself in front of her, smiling bright and wide with a hand outstretched to take hers.

Konan lifted a hand to smack Madara, no doubt, but it was Kisame who elbowed Madara out of the way and growled, flashing razors for teeth in his mouth. Madara's sloppy grin stayed in place but when his eyes narrowed the expression was almost challenging.

"You're guests," Konan snapped, slapping her hands on the table. "Act like it."

Kisame cowered after the noise but Madara just blinked and lazily shrugged his shoulders before meandering back to the edge of the kitchen counter, close to Sakura.

"You're wondering what happens next, aren't you?" Madara asked, tone casual.

"Yeah, obviously. I wasn't prepared for this or expecting things to turn out like this. You're free from a curse, hooray for you. Now what? What am I supposed to do with you?" Sakura reached for some of the garbage left on the counter and threw it out, giving the stink eye to the gray skinned one.

"We'd…help you if you need it," Konan started to say. Madara took a half step closer to Sakura. "Not that you would have to chose or anything."

"Chose what?" Sakura asked.

"Who you would want to keep around. Anyone else would just…" Konan let her words trail off as she glanced sideways at the others. "I'm not sure I'm saying this right at all."

Sakura heard the crunch of gravel and looked up, hearing Kakuzu in the driveway. Her heart grew a little lighter. Here was another adult she could talk to and get help sorting things out.

"Wait," Madara hissed, stopping her with a hand on her wrist as she started to move towards the door.

When Sakura looked back his hair was a wild mess around his face, eyes spinning with new red color. Even Kisame behind him had put down the food and was glaring at the door. One by one Sakura saw each of the shinobi take on defensive stances. Some of them even crackled with power.

"What are you doing, that is Kakuzu, he's here to help us."

"We know who he is," Konan hissed. "He's not one of us anymore."

Sakura staggered with the words but Madara tugged her closer to him. The front door opened just as she fell back into the hold of Madara's arms, cross crossed and possessive.

Kakuzu stepped in and Sakura saw him without the scarf or face mask. HIs eyes were uncovered and blazing with green magic not unlike her own. His expression was one of wide awe before something changed and he turned aggressive.

"Let her go, Uchiha," Kakuzu grunted. "She's not yours."

"Not yours either by the smell of it," Konan interjected, raising her chin. "You already had a witch, what are you doing here looking for another?"

"Hang on, that's Kakuzu, he led me to this place. He's not…what…do you know each other?" Sakura yelled, whipping her head back and forth. Things almost began to make sense in her mind. She could see how he fit into this.

"It's been several decades since Mito freed and bound me, but she's dead and I'm not, so put Sakura down and stow your magic for another day. I'm not here to fight on behalf of my dead matriarch."

"That true?" Kisame asked, lowering his voice and addressing Sakura. "His old witch is dead?"

"Mito? Yeah, this was her house but I inherited it. Why, what does that have to do with it?" Sakura pushed at Madara and made him drop his arm around her. "And let me go already, I can take care of myself just fine."

"I know, love," he chuckled, raising both his hands, palms up.

"Put it away, all of you, Kakuzu is here to help." Sakura turned to the man in the doorway. "Right?"

Kakuzu straightened and tugged on his suit front. "Indeed, this was not the expected development Mito planned for, and not from you, either." Kakuzu narrowed a look at her. "She didn't tell me you still had magic after all these years and I never sensed it."

"Someone called it perfect chakra control or something," Sakura muttered. "Most people can't pick up on it and I don't advertise. But really, that's all beside the point, isn't it?"

"How do you know Kakuzu?" Konan asked, gaze wary.

"He works for my great aunt, or he did until she died, but now he's in charge of taking care of her will. This house is like, not really mine yet and I'm trying to earn it. He's a lawyer."

The term didn't seem to register with the group, or maybe it was too unbelievable, Sakura couldn't tell. No one seemed readable to her.

"But, how do you guys know who he is?" Sakura asked.

"He was with us, back then, back there," answered Kisame, sounding less fierce and more confused. "I guess you got out early?"

Kakuzu nodded. "Mito sama summoned me to serve as her familiar back then. She couldn't summon anyone else, said it would be too much strain on one person, but you seem fine, Sakura."

Her bones weren't shattered, so she guessed he was right about that. It was likely only because she had fasted from magic for so many years that she was able to do something so big. There were six solid forms where once there were none. Her magic had made blood and sinew brand new six times over. But she hadn't summoned any of them as familiars. If she had they would be a whole other step she knew she would heave noticed. Also, none of them had animal forms chosen.

Sakura heard the exhaustion in her own words. "What are we going to do now?"

She sighed, dropping her head into her hands as the realization hit her. Shinobi or witches, if they were reformed or freed from a curse they could be made into familiars. That was an option and she hated hot her gut told me that was what several of them were hoping for.

"You don't have to do anything more, Sakura. The Uzumaki company will take over from here. I'll find places for them and identities-"

"I'm not going," Madara cut in, eyes narrowed. "You can't tell me what to do or did you forget who you are to me?"

Kakuzu's glare was a challenge. "You forget who you are now, a no-one in a far away land with only the shadow of his former powers."

Madara rolled his eyes and examined the beds of his nails. "Maybe you don't work for me anymore, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I let you boss me around. I said I'm staying. Sakura can send me away, but I won't listen to you."

"You can't run around as you please in this brave new world," Kakuzu insisted, looking to Sakura to back him up.

"He's right," Sakura said. "You'll need identities. I don't know the first thing about forging those. I didn't know Mito's family knew anything about that, either."

"All the Uzumaki know this much. You would too if you were closer with the rest of the family."

Sakura smiled but it felt like baring her teeth at a wild animal. "That wasn't entirely my choice, though, was it? You remember what you just said about auntie Mito and me, she never expected anything from me or my side of the family tree."

"It's rare for magic that strong-"

"There's more to family than what you can gain from each other," Sakura snapped. "Even if I didn't have magic, that shouldn't have justified their attitudes with the rest of us. Serves her right, serves Naruto and Menma and Karin and all the others right If I never lift a finger for them for the rest of their life."

Behind her, Madara's grin curled and he looked even more like the cat that caught the cream. It irked Kakuzu to no end to watch that from the opposite end of an argument.

"We were foolish to overlook your abilities."

"No, not my abilities," Sakura muttered, grabbing her left hand and holding it. "Me."

Kakuzu nodded. "We were foolish for overlooking you. But this is what you called me over for, they need places to sleep and identities to step into. You can offer them neither of these things. Be bitter if you want, let it keep you warm in the cold, but don't ignore what is before you in this moment."

Sakura looked behind her at the others, at Konan, Gaara, Kisame, the gray one, and then Madara who seemed to draw ever closer to her every time she glanced back. What would she do with them?

"That's awfully disarming, don't you think?" Konan huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "We came here for Sakura, we're not willing to leave her alone if it's like she says, and she's not a part of a cover or even bonded with a familiar. You want her being soul sucked or something?"

"The world is not so dangerous," Kakuzu scoffed. "Sakura is more than capable On her own."

Konan glared hard. "If we were here who else do you think was caught in the jar and cursed so bad? You know there are others. What about the enemies from long ago? If we were here, mad and terrorizing her, there will be others, more than ever now that she's blooming with magic."

Madara chuckled and it sounded like the chittering of a bird as he leaned in closer to Sakura. "It's such an appealing smell, too," he whispered close to her ear."Maybe  _we_  would like to be your familiars, ever think of that? I'd be a cat or a crow, always on your shoulder. No one would have to know."

"Any one of us could be a bird or a cat," Konan grumbled. "Don't act so haughty about it."

"I'd still be best at it." He didn't pout, but the way his lips curled came close.

Sakura pushed Madara away when he got too close. "I didn't plan on making myself into a witch as a career. I won't take a familiar because there is no need."

"Witch or shinobi isn't a career, it's who you are," Kisame laughed before reaching for the last bits of meat left behind in a plastic bag. "Can't shake it any more than the freckles on your face, princess."

Sakura wrinkled her nose, knowing it made her freckles stand out all the more. "I've gone six years without magic, I can go another twenty or thirty, I think."

"Why did you break your streak," Kisame asked, a finger digging in between his teeth for something stuck.

Sakura looked at the canvas, still left out. It would have been nice if she could say it was because she wanted to be good and helpful and kind, but really, it was only because she was angry and needed to do something with that anger. She never dreamed of a situation like the one happening right now to come from her spite. T _hey were supposed to move on._

"It doesn't matter now. I thought there was a need but I was wrong."

"There was," Konan breathed, reaching for Sakura's shoulder. "You don't know what it was like for us in there. You saved us and we are in your debt for a lifetime. There was no death for us, only a terrible hell. There are others trapped too. If you could…"

Kakuzu crossed the room and stepped close to Sakura, reaching out to push Konan's hand off Sakura's shoulder. "There is a limit to what you may ask. Don't ask her to shatter herself for criminals."

Konan's soft edges melted and she was sharp and hard again. "You were a criminal too."

"And I don't deserve what you're asking of her."

"It's not about deserving."

Konan turned her nose up and then looked back to Sakura. "Think about it, but don't feel like you have to make a decision right now. Okay?" Her gaze flickered to Kakuzu. "We'll go with him for now, but only if that's what you want. We'll come back to you right after."

"Don't speak for me, I don't plan on leaving," Madara said. "Plus we just discussed how it could be dangerous, so at least one of us should stay behind."

"Konan."

Sakura said the name out loud and Madara made a pained sound that was an impulse reaction. He simmered only when Sakura sent him an apologetic look.

"You all need to be brought up to speed and I can't help you with the next steps in this world. Konan can stay the night, but maybe the rest of you should go with Kakuzu for then.

"One more can stay though," Madara argued.

"Then it should be Gaara," Konan said. "He still needs to adjust, the madness is still thick around him, and he wouldn't be any good around the rest of you." She looked to Sakura with questioning eyes. "Does that sound good?"

Madara was all glower but huffed in compliance when Sakura nodded.

"Fine, but I'll be back tomorrow."

"We all will," amended Kisame, licking something off his thumb. "But be a gentleman for one night instead of a cad."

Madara bared his teeth and grinned in warning. "I'm always a gentleman." He looked over at Sakura and tugged on her arm, bringing her close enough to kiss on the cheek. "I'll be back for you, don't worry love."

 

 


	3. Almost Me

Chapter Three  
Almost Me

 

* * *

Part The next morning Sakura woke up, found her fridge empty, and ran to the store to buy meat and eggs and milk. She brought everything home and started making pancakes and eggs by herself in the kitchen.

Konan was still asleep in the queen sized bed Sakura and her shared, and Gaara was…somewhere in the loft using a couple of old sleeping bags and the darkness he seemed so fond of.

The smell of sizzling sausage patties made Sakura's mouth water even as she flipped another pancake into the glass dish. Three place settings had already been set up and she expected it wouldn't be long before they were filled with new bodies, hungry for more food.

Oddly enough, it wasn't Konan but Gaara who showed up first.

Sakura was turning around to grab a spatula when she noticed the shock of red hair. She gasped and dropped the utensils onto the counter and pulled the edges of her cardigan together.

"I didn't hear you come down." She shook her head and then swallowed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to jump. Did you sleep well, Gaara?"

"I…believe so." He blinked like there was still sleep in his eyes and then squinted at the sight in front of him. "I'm sorry, I don't remember you. Where am I?"

Sakura felt a smile, loose and natural spread across her face. It was the sort of smile she got when talking to students who were honest in their interest or maybe a little lost. Sakura felt the urge to take care of the person in front of her.

"That's okay, Gaara. You're nowhere special or dangerous. Sit down and have something to eat, I'll answer the questions I can."

Sakura prepared a plate for him and told him what happened last night, excluding the parts where she had to pin him to the ground. Gaara listened silently, nodding along to show his interest. He didn't ask any questions until Sakura was done, and even then, it was because she prodded him.

"It's fuzzy, and I don't remember much of anything right now, but I think it will clear up soon. Did you say that Kakuzu took the other to the…coven? A coven is a clan, correct?"

"I think so. Basically it's just a group of magic users."

"And magic is chakra," Gaara said, more to himself than to her.

Sakura snapped her fingers. "Basically."

Her phone dinged once and Sakura cursed, looking at the time.

"I have to go, I have classes today. I'll be back around four. I've already texted Kakuzu my work itinerary so he knows not to come by if I'm not home. You and Konan have the day to yourself. Maybe some privacy would be good for you both. I don't want to make you feel crowded."

"You're leaving?"

His voice made Sakura pause. There was something young and broken about it, even though it came from a man that ruled a small sand kingdom, according to Konan. Gaara was a leader of many people and an authority in their old world, but he sounded nothing like that picture Konan's words painted. Gaara just sounded lost and broken to her.

Sakura hesitated. "You…want to come with me?"

He followed her wordlessly, ready and willing to follow her lead.

Sakura looked him over once and pulled up her magic, pushing it into the threads of his clothes thing until the rags were fixed and the trousers were modernized. It wasn't exactly what he had been wearing before, but it was clean and neat enough to blend in with the rest of the academic youngsters.

"If anyone asks, you're my TA hopeful."

"What's a TAhopeful?"

Sakura winced at the way it came out of his mouth. "Teaching assistant hopeful, TA hopeful, two words that time. Come on, I'm driving us there." She pulled out her keys and aimed them at the cherry red Camry. "Get in the car."

Gaara gulped.

* * *

Sakura sipped from the lime green straw of her take out cup, tapping the edge of the podium. The class was filtering out, just starting to put their things away and pack up for their next class. A handful of girls came up to her right away and said something Sakura responded to in heavy sarcasm. The girls giggled and filed out together, glancing back to see their professor grinning at them with a knowing look to her eye.

Sakura called out to a different student and handed him some papers he had asked for help with. They weren't papers for her class, but she had looked them over all the same and given him some tips on what the professor of that class would be looking for.

There were a handful of students lingering on the stairs that Sakura eyed thoughtfully before the broke up and promised they would get to the homework reading 'this time for sure.'

"You had better because next chapter is going to be all over that pop quiz I haven't mentioned a dozen times," Sakura sasses back.

One of the boys laughed and another cursed while the third one pushed them all out.

"I'm pretty sure he was lying to you just now."

Sakura turned and saw Gaara, holding the ankle he had crossed over his knee. He let go and his leg slid back down to help support the rest of his weight for when he stood. Gaara crossed the room to stand alongside her.

Sakura grinned and then sucked up what was left of her drink. "Yeah, but that's only half my problem. It's his responsibility to take charge of his education. I do what I can, but I can't just give it to him."

"Why do you bother with people who don't want to learn?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and tapped the straw against her bottom lip. "You know, I ask myself that almost every week. Sometimes I don't know. But I think everyone wants to learn, deep down. It's the human condition to what to know. The thing that stops us is the effort, the work you have to put in is too much for some. And I understand that too. Plus, it's more common to have students that are willing than unwilling considering what they have to pay to attend."

Sakura tossed the drink into the trash.

"Still, I enjoys it."

"You're good at it."

Sakura looked back and blushed, even as her smile grew wide. "You're trying to flatter me, aren't you? What do you want?"

He looked at the trash and then up at her, eyes wide. "If I tell you nice things you'll get me stuff?"

"Don't tell anyone, but it's my weakness. Sing my praises a little more and I'll buy you something sweet with cream," Sakura laughed, eyes flashing with mischief. "Also, I think you're a little too honest to be manipulating me right now."

"I'm not," Gaara responded, huffing almost. He seemed irritated that she would imply he would do such a thing.

Sakura grabbed her shoulder bag, the stiff one with fancy brass latches that made her really feel like a professor. She paused and looked up at Gaara from the low point of her teacher space. He was on the rise and she was on the low step, making him taller than her.

She looked him over again and felt her smile turn playful. "You're cute."

Gaara's jade colored eyes went wide. "Why would you say that?"

She shrugged. "It's just an observation. I don't mean anything by it, but with your hair combed and the blazer, you're quite the eye full. Even the other students were saying so. Jessica asked me for your number and I told her to get a better test score first."

"I don't-what-why would you give a person a number? That sounds oddly nefarious for someone to ask."

Sakura chuckled, waving him down. "It means phone number. She wanted to be able to call and text you. It's basically how people start in the first steps of dating or courting. You probably had a different word for it."

Gaara started to follow her down the steps to the platform. "What is the purpose of dating?"

Sakura didn't flinch as she answered with a very blunt, "Sex."

Gaara stumbled and almost slipped. His eyes were the widest she had ever seen them and it was enough to make her laugh, full belly and loud. His face was as red as his hair.

"You're teasing me. That's a joke!"

"No, but it's not as terrible as you think. I mean, yeah I'm pulling your leg a little. She probably did want to have a night with you, but most people take the time to get to know a person before that step."

"She doesn't know anything about me," Gaara groused. "What a crude thing to say about someone to a teacher. I don't like her."

"Oh sweet sunshine child of mine," Sakura drawled in a teasing way. She held out her hand and reached for his arm, leading him through the halls. "You're one of the sweet ones, you know that? I like you, you can stay if Kakuzu lets me keep any of you. I have a feeling he's going to try and cut you out and give your group to the heirs."

Gaara winced at her words, but his expression didn't darken enough to keep him from prying further into her words. "What do you mean? What heirs?"

Sakura led him to the buildings on campus were adjunct faculty had their offices. Her office was a dinky cubicle in a crowded room, which would have been fine if it was guaranteed to her for the next year too.

Outside the trees were crowding closer and closer to each other, their branches stretching across the walkways like fingers wishing to intertwine. As Sakura walked with Gaara, the light filtered in shades of gold and honey over their faces.

"I'm what you would consider from the branch family of a…clan or coven. I'm a little more on the outside than the others. Mito was the matriarch or the most powerful person. They're always the head person in charge. She was my great aunt, but she had grandchildren in the main family or through the direct line." Sakura paused to roll her eyes. "They're all special sorts of assholes. Karin and I-she is what you would consider a cousin, let's say. She and I are the most alike of any of the witches I've ever met. She's a blood witch, and I'm a bone witch. She's one of a kind and she hates my guts. Then there are the twins, Naruto and Menma. Menma wants to eat my liver and Naruto's just a brat that thinks he's Jesus."

"Who is Jesus?"

Sakura felt herself redden. "I mean, Naruto thinks he's God's gift to the world, he's super stuck up and entitled like no one I've ever known. Ugh, I hate those kids, they made family reunions as a child the worst. They teased me viciously and summoned frogs into my hair because I couldn't use my magic at the time." Sakura pointed to herself and imitated a sad face. "Late bloomer."

"They are your family but they aren't your allies, I take it." Gaara nodded, eyes going distant with thought. "I can understand that. Blood of the womb is not always binding in life. Your own father might betray you if it suits him."

Through where their arms were linked Sakura felt Gaara tense. She reached up to pat his arm and tug him closer to her side.

"Yeah, but that's mostly in the past. What I'm worried about now is Kakuzu trying to make Madara and the others into familiars for my dear cousins. That would boost their standing in the coven. They're all vying for the head position and having a strong familiar would help that along. inheritance would favor Naruto or Menma, but Karin's a girl so the tradition of female leaders is on her side."

"You don't want to be clan head?"

Sakura snorted, reaching up to cover the bottom half of her face and blush at the crass sound. "Me? Oh no way in hell. I couldn't lead anything if I wanted. I have my own life that's doing pretty good without any witchy business. I went six years without touching my magic  _once_. It's not that important to me."

"You're not going to take any familiars then?"

"I like not having that level of responsibility. When you take on a familiar it should be as heavy a responsibility as marriage or having a child. It's not something to be entered into lightly and frankly, I'm scared of the prospect."

"What is there to frighten you?" Gaara asked, reaching forward when they stopped at the entryway to the adjunct building. He held the door open for her and waited until she was inside before following her in.

"I would hate to do a bad job. I don't like failure."

Gaara reached for her arm again, not realizing he was missing her contact until he was without it.

"It's always been a question of power and ability when I've heard other speak of it. I've never heard it put like that." His expression turned almost teasing as he smiled over at her. "If you're uncomfortable with failure and responsibility, why did you become a teacher?"

Sakura groaned, slipping out of his arm and moving towards her cubicle. "Don't tease me like that. You make my heart hurt with the truth of your words. I've got too much responsibility from work, I don't want it in my personal life. It's one of the reasons I don't date."

Gaara jerked awkwardly at the word and Sakura laughed into her hand, knowing she had perverted a little piece of his mind and left him scarred.

"Let me get my things together and I'll take you to get that drink. Extra whipped cream and sprinkles for you, my friend."

* * *

Gaara looked like a baby with a bottle of warm milk at the end of the day. He seemed ready to sink into the drink and Sakura was tempted to take a photo and make it her screen background. He was too cute and he just seemed to keep getting cuter for her.

"You like it?" Sakura asked.

"Mmmm," he mumbled around the straw. Most of the drink was gone but he was going to keep sucking until there was nothing left.

"I'll get you some more next time we're out. Or I'll just take you for ice cream. I have a feeling that will really knock your socks off."

"I don't want my socks knocked off." His eyes were drowsy and his frown was more pout than anything else.

"God, you are adorable. I don't know what I'm going to do with you."

"Don't let Kakuzu take me. I want to stay with you." He sat up in his seat, blinking quickly before the straw found his mouth and he sucked up more of the dregs, melting like the cream in the passenger's seat.

"So cute," Sakura whispered to herself

The bitten back smile fell apart when she turned down the road and saw an all too familiar car parked awkwardly in the driveway. Her eyes narrowed when she remembered telling Kakuzu not to come by when she was at work.

That car didn't belong to Kakuzu.

She accelerated just a bit to stop hard and put her car in park. She grabbed her things and pat Gaara quickly on the shoulder to rush him along. He followed obediently but before they could both go in through the front Sakura turned and pushed invisibility into his body, feeding the spell with magic she kept tight and thin. No way the person inside would be able to feel it.

Sakura touched her lip in warning before turning into the house.

There were things she expected to see and there were things she didn't expect, and then there was Tayuya.

The pink haired girl turned and grinned, eyes manic and lips thin. "Hello dearest cousin of mine," Tayuya cheered, sounding so fake Sakura knew it was on purpose.

Karin and Naruto and Menma Sakura knew how to handle because those three were from the main family and as polished as stones in an ancient river bed. Tayuya was a different story because she was the same as Sakura, on the outskirts of the main house in the branch family ranks. Where Sakura turned away from the family business and went into the world to forget how she was not one of the 'chosen ones,'. Tayuya did everything in her power to grow closer to the main family and carve out a niche there for herself.

It didn't work.

Now Tayuya was a little  _too_  wild for anyone to know what to do with. It didn't help that she was more power hungry after the rejection from the main family.

_'If only I had what they had, then things would be different!'_

Sakura could guess why Tayuya was there.

"I did not expect you. What are you doing in my house?" Sakura said.

Tayuya grinned, nodding to the high ceilings. "This place used to be mine for a time, did you know that? I couldn't stand it though, what with the haunting and the wailing. They were worse the longer I stayed. You seem fine though."

Sakura looked around, glancing about for Konan and seeing no trace of the woman left behind.

"I'm not comfortable with you here while I'm out. The door should have been locked. How did you get in?" Sakura asked.

Tayuya laughed and pulled out a metal flute. "You didn't lock it with magic, silly rabbit."

"I'm not into that stuff, remember?" Sakura ground out.

Tayuya bat her eyelashes, mocking and sweet. "You're such a liar, cousin of mine. I know when you're not telling me the truth. Where are the little beasts? You're not bonded to them yet, are you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Kakuzu filed the paperwork for them. The adults want to call dibs on some of them for their kids. Stupid assholes. No one works for what they want anymore. I'm the only one out here tracking them down. Where are they, toots?" Tayuya spun her flute and the wind made a sound that made ripples in the air.

Sakura thought about lying and knew how well that would go. If she was going to lie, Tayuya would have to be a part of it.

"Is that why Kakuzu took them all last night?" Sakura asked, faking innocence. "I called him here and he rushed over. He said they needed identities for this world and…and they left with him. He said they would come back. You-you telling me that was a lie?"

Sakura forced anger that wasn't hers into her voice.

For a moment the similar cousins stared each other down. There was no sign of Gaara and no sign of Konan. Neither cousin seemed ready to talk when Tayuya's face split into a wild grin and she laughed.

"What a silly rabbit you are. You actually believed that creep? No, you're never seeing those boys again. So sorry for your loss. I guess you're as useless as you first appeared."

"You're going to leave, after coming here and saying all that? What are you going to do?" Sakura demanded, hiking her shoulders and forcing agitation into the frames of her body.

"That's for me to know and you to wonder about when you're all alone at night." She tapped the side of her nose mockingly. "Smell you later, silly rabbit."

Tayuya laughed loud in a pitch high enough to rattle glass before she pushed past Sakura and out the door. Sakura waited on the threshold, watching the younger cousin rev her keep and peel out.

Sakura jumped when Gaara's hand settled on her shoulder. The magic peeled away and he was visible once more. Sakura turned to face him and saw over his shoulder a pile of papers stood up and fluttered together to turn into a female form. Konan shook the papers off a second later and fluffed her hair.

"I thought she would never leave, what an annoying child," the older woman complained.

Sakura turned and looked back out, seeing nothing but dust and dirt.

"Don't hate her too easily. She was almost me."


	4. Make Me/Blood Witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extended length for this chapter

**The Barn**

* * *

Chapter Four   
Make Me/ Blood Witch

* * *

Sakura made dinner for three, hating how she knew in her bones that she would only need three servings. Tayuya's seed of worry was sprouting in Sakura's mind. She started to fixate about the reasons Kakuzu didn't return her calls.

Her phone was on the counter, dark and silent. No missed called, no unread text messages.

_'Wrong, wrong, wrong.'_

"Were you in danger?"

Sakura blinked and looked up, realizing for the first time that Konan was speaking to her. Sakura's thoughts had drifted again.

"I'm sorry. What were you saying?" Sakura asked.

Kona smiled apologetically. "No, it was sudden. I meant about earlier, with the other girl that came here. She was wild with magic all through her, but that didn't change when you showed up. I didn't think that meant danger but when I thought about it later…it's not normal for shinobi or your sort of people to be flaring their chakra-I mean magic, like that. It's wasteful."

"It's Tayuya. That's her MO, what she's known for. She's all wild all the time. You can't get the drop on her, and she's the sort of person you want on your side. For better or for worse, she's…always dangerous, all the time."

Sakura grinned out of the side of her mouth, not realizing she was even doing it until she caught the reflection of her face in the water glass. She let the expression fall away. Old memories always felt fonder the further she grew from them.

Memories weren't much different than scars.

"It didn't sound like there was much use for being dangerous in this strange new world," Gaara said, licking his lips. The chances that he was thinking about that drink were high.

"Not for me, no, I'm not really immersed in that world. The rest of the coven, the family, they do the dangerous stuff. I don't know exactly  _what_ , because we weren't that tight, but it made Tayuya look good." Sakura shrugged. "I guess I didn't have enough faith to blindly pledge my services like she did."

"What is the dangerous stuff?" Gaara asked.

Sakura waved her hand dismissively. "No idea. Maybe they're beheading dirty politicians in the Ukraine or dealing with forces over the veil. For all I know they're playing board games with the devil on Wednesdays. What was the sort of dangerous stuff you did when you guys were shinobi in your old world?"

"Fighting, killing people, escorting clients through dangerous territories. It was full blown war at the end," Konan answered.

"You didn't look like you were dressed for war when you first were summoned," said Sakura.

"You can thank whoever it was that tethered our spirits to the wood of this place. When our souls were bound we were influenced by the era of this place. That was over a hundred years ago. You've not seen us in our traditional garb."

Sakura whistled low. "I didn't know this place was that old."

Konan grinned. "We were built into it."

"And it was over one hundred and twenty years ago," Gaara added. When Konan narrowed her eyes at him quizzically he just pointed to a book left on the end table with the title,  _Local Providence History_.

"I didn't know you read," Konan whispered.

Gaara made a face. "You thought I was illiterate?"

"I…just didn't know you read. There wasn't a lot of reading material in the mad genjutsu warping word."

"How did you think I ran a country if I couldn't read?" Gaara glared at Konan but then whipped his face around to Sakura and his expression went from agitated to desperate. "I can read, I'm not illiterate. I read lots of things."

"I believe you," Sakura said, failing to not see his desperate face as cute. He was too easily adorable.

"Are there many like her?" Konan asked. "Crazy like a wildfire and ready to go?"

"Tay is a hurricane, she's a wind witch like a lot of the main family members. Karin is a blood witch, and I'm a bone witch. Some of the Uzumaki women are dual witches, possessing more than one speciality, but the dominate trait is almost always wind."

Sakura rolled her eyes, remembering how that classification brought with it a sense of superiority she missed out on. She wasn't of 'pure' stock, they told her.

"Shinobi specialize in different areas of study, and we have natures to our chakra, but it's funny that we don't limit ourselves to one trait," said Konan. "I think you would have done well as a shinobi."

"I'm barely a witch," Sakura scoffed. "I'm not a part of that lifestyle, remember?"

"You're not like the other girl, but that doesn't mean you're not dangerous," Gaara said.

Sakura felt weight settled into her when Gaara looked across the table at her. She felt like he could suddenly see right through her. She had been turned transparent for him to see the parts that she had ignored or pretended to never have in the first place. She hadn't touched magic in six years but it had touched her, like it or not.  _He knew that. He saw that_.

Sakura lowered her eyes and reached for the glass of water, sipping more so to give herself something to do and less to actually drink. She couldn't meet his eyes in that moment. Sakura didn't want to be dangerous.

"It doesn't seem like the others are coming back tonight. Were you expecting them later?" Konan asked.

She stood up to collect their plates and take them to the kitchen sink. Sakura rose to follow her and help. Gaara picked up what was left of the food and carried it over to the stove. There was a little of the Sheppard's Pie left that Sakura helped him put away in a plastic tub.

"I was expecting a call from him, actually." Sakura slipped the lids over the Tupperware and then placed the plastic in the fridge. "He should have contacted me by now but none of my calls or texts have been answered. I'm not worried, because I'm sure those guys can take care of themselves, but I don't like this feeling."

"Do you have classes to teach tomorrow?" Konan asked.

Gaara grumbled, sending an annoyed look over to Konan. "They can take care of themselves. She doesn't need to do anything for them."

Konan waved a hand in his direction to shush him before turning to Sakura and waiting for an answer.

Sakura nodded. "I do have classes in the morning, but they're early. I'll be done by mid day. I don't think I have meetings either, just office hours."

"You have to be there for the whole time?"

Sakura felt a grumble in her heart. "I don't need to be there exactly. I can say there is a family issue I need to see to and leave if I don't have any appointments on the books with students. It doesn't look good, but…"

She had never sacrificed any of her work or school life for witchery work. It didn't set well with her that one lifestyle crossed over to her main lifestyle. She was worried about being professional at the university, not the number of black cats that crossed her path.

"You don't need to do anything for them. No one can force Madara to do anything he doesn't want to and the others will be just as fine. What's the worse that can happen when they're here, where it's super safe all the time?"

Gaara didn't mean for his words to make her worry, but that's all they did for the rest of the night and into the next day.

* * *

Sakura left Gaara behind, not having the heart to wake him and take him with her before the sun was up. After her first class a few students from her lecture yesterday peeked in to see if Sakura was with the new TA hopeful and were disappointed when Sakura said that today was 'the love boat's day off.' The gaggle of girls were all a tizzy on their way out.

Before long it was lunch time and she was in her last lecture. When that ended she checked her emails from her phone one last time and saw that there were no outstanding meetings planned by any of her students or the rest of the faculty.

She took the free time to make her copies and prepare the materials for the next day's lesson. She planned a pop quiz but then scrapped that when she realized she hadn't finished covering the chapter. With the new textbook update the old chapters were all split and she had to wait twice as long to give a test that was also twice as long.

Sakura paused in her cubicle to check her calls. Just like her messages, there were none from Kakuzu.

She made the copies anyway and saved them for later. With her things put together Sakura grabbed her bag and the untouched drink off her desk and headed for the parking lot.

When she got home Gaara was there, almost simmering until she offered him the frappuccino. He melted like a cat for the apology/bribe. Konan looked up from the book she was reading and frowned when she saw Sakura's expression.

"What's the matter?" Konan asked.

Sakura hated what she had to say, wishing she didn't have to even as the words started to spill from her mouth. "Those boys aren't coming back unless I go get them myself."

"Kakuzu told you this?" Konan asked, standing and looking worried.

"No, he didn't tell me anything, and that's how I know it's bad. I'm going to change and then I'm heading back out. Is there a way you could be discreet and mobil?"

Konan took a stew forward and unfolded into a hundred pure white papers that flapped noisily onto themselves and then folded up again and again until she was an origami flower pretty enough to wear as a hair decoration.

Sakura nodded to Gaara. "And you?"

He narrowed his eyes at Sakura, still sucking up cold drink through the lime green straw. "I'm not hiding."

"It's not hiding, I just don't want them to see you and try to keep you behind too."

"I'm not leaving your side and I'm not staying behind. They can't make me, so I'm not hiding," he answered in a matter of fact tone. He didn't sound like he would entertain any dissuasion.

"You don't know the Uzumaki."

Gaara shrugged. "They don't know me."

Sakura set her mouth into a line and nodded, inwardly willing herself to stay neutral and not let her expression slip to show anything.

"Fine. I won't let them take you if you don't want to. I'm not as strong as the Uzumaki main house members, but I'll be strong enough. Just wait for me to change."

Sakura cleaned up and peeled off the pencil skirt and nude stockings. She had a long sleeved dress as black as pitch with a deep cut in the front. It stopped around her knees in heavy folds that lifted when she twirled. Sakura stepped into pointed black heels that made her feel ten feet tall and sounded her approach like a warning on the right type of floors.

Sakura almost left the bathroom after that, but paused to look herself over again. She redid her eyes and lips with the darker colors and blew a kiss to her reflection. She looked like a witch again and that was half the power struggle.

Sakura slipped a small woven purse over her shoulder and checked to make sure her chalk and totems were all in place.

When she lifted the paper flower that was Konan to clip into her hair the outside of the paper turned back and curled to match the rest of Sakura's image.

"Are they far, this Uzumaki family?" Gaara asked.

Sakura reached for a stick of chalk encased in a mother of pearl handle. She blew on the end and then tapped the hardwood before bending down to draw a long, intricate seal in a counterclockwise pattern with perfect lines and unforgiving edges. In the center of the seal she drew an eye open sideways.

"Stand with me in the center, Gaara," she said while holding out her hand for him to take.

He reached for her but skipped her hand to just take her arm and wrap it around his own. He pressed close to her side and she felt the warmth of him.

Arm in arm, Sakura refocused her attention and pushed her magic into the seal. It wasn't the neatest of all her work, but when it hummed under her, her bones sang happy and she knew she had done a good enough job.

There was a pull downward and Sakura felt the pressure before her magic buffered both her and Gaara and then the snap that tore the world into a new shade of white made her jump. The world bled back into color and slipped slowly into focus.

Gaara leaned on her and she held him steady until the spinning stopped.

"Where are we?"

Sakura opened her eyes and looked up. All around them was white gray marble veined with black and blue. The stood on a dias that was burned with a seal of its own.

Sakura stepped down and tugged Gaara with her before heading to the seamless door that responded with just a touch. "The is the receiving hall. Come on, the real manor is a little further down."

Outside the door there was a path made out of tan gravel and white crushed shells. It was shaded by slouching trees with branches as wide as they were long. It was a fair walk before the path curved towards a white colored house with marble columns and a cascade of history in every step.

Sakura led Gaara up the front stairs and didn't bother knocking. The door opened as they approached and a footman stood to the side, eyeing them as they walked in.

"Where is Kakuzu?" Sakura asked, stepping over the threshold.

"He is occupied at this moment with the young masters. If you would like to wait in the parlor Dame Sakura, I shall let him know you've arrived."

Sakura felt her lip curl at the title. "There's no need for that. He's expecting me."

It was a lie. Kakuzu probably thought she was cowering at the house, ignoring the issues like she had for all of six years. She had never been much of a witch, and dressing up in dark colors didn't change it.

All her life she had been second class, never good enough, a castaway afterthought of a girl. She had never tried to be anything else, so why would anyone expect her to waltz into the home of the largest and arguably most powerful coven on the East Coast looking like she belonged?

"There's a lot of shinobi here," whispered Gaara, drawing close to her side.

"You mean witches."

"No, shinobi. Witches, yeah, but there are more than just Madara and Kisame and Zabuza here. I can feel their chakra. Shinobi aren't the best when it comes to masking their powers unless they are a sensor type."

"You recognize anyone?" Sakura asked, keeping her voice low as she turned down a new hallway and led Gaara towards the offices where Kakuzu should be. She remembered the way from when she came in last week to represent her claim in the late Mito will.

Gaara yanked on her arm and Sakura stopped. Gaara pointed off to the opposition hall. "Down there. I can sense Madara."

"The others?" Sakura echoed.

"Maybe, but Madara is the easiest to notice."

Sakura stood where she stopped, looking down the hallway to where Kakuzu's office was. It was only a few doors down. Nothing about it stood out. There was no magic running around the exterior like other doors in the same hallway. No peering eyes either.

Sakura turned on her heel and headed in the direction Gaara pointed out. "Let's go," she said, threading her arm into his once more.

The doors seemed to warp and stretch. Sakura felt the webbing of an illusion even as Gaara muttered something about 'genjutsu' in her ear. It was easy enough to step through and ignore without much bothering. Lesser mortals would have been caught right away. Sakura wasn't one of those anymore.

Gaara stopped at a door and Sakura bit back a groan before pushing open the first door. The Uzumaki library was the envy of all bookworm girls, as long and tall as the ones in the city, and just as stocked. Several fireplaces warmed the corners and in front of one of those fires, a beautiful redhead sat nursing a short glass burning with liquid amber.

Karin looked up and the fire reflected in her glass, making it look like she nursed the burning flames in her palms. Her eyes, once half lidded and drowsy, flashed wide with brilliant color as a smile stretched wider and mad across her ruby lips.

She stood and turned, the silk of her dress sliding down over her hips like hands, leaving little to the imagination. Karin was just as stunning as Sakura remembered. The redhead had perfect nails and diamonds on her fingers, sparkling like a piece of art. It hurt to look at her.

"Sakura!"

Up on the higher levels Madara leaned far over the railings. He gripped the metal once and then heaved himself up and over, falling through the air for two stories before touching down in front of her in a low crouch that disturbed nothing in the air. He sprang up and reached for her hand but as he moved a gold chain materialized and yanked him back towards Karin. He snarled.

"You bitch, if I had my chakra-"

"But you don't," Karin drawled. She raised her fist, wrapped over and over with layers of gold chakra binds. "Stupid, old fashioned fool. You're a mess waiting to happen. Did you bring the other ones to me, cousin?"

Gaara growled, standing closer to Sakura even as Madara's eyes flashed. Something kept the red out of his irises.

"I was afraid of something like this. Where is Kakuzu and the others, Karin?" Sakura asked, fixing her posture into one of casual defiance. This was the game between them.

"Auntie said we needed to help you out. You're in over your head, dearest cous," Karin cooed, her voice sluggish.

Sakura narrowed her eyes, noticing the red bite marks on the underside of Karin's one arm. They were out in the open like she wasn't even trying to hide them anymore.

"What did they do to you?" Sakura breathed, heart hammering fast in her throat. Those were fresh bites and old bites both.

"I'm getting by, cous," Karin chuckled, closing her eyes and letting her head roll to one side. Her hair fell off her neck and several more bites showed up along the pale of her neck. Her posture was one step away from lethargic.

Sakura felt anger in the roots of her teeth. She wanted to tear apart something with her jaws, soaked heavy in magic. Karin was one of them! How could they? She was a contender for the next matriarch or patriarch of their coven.

"Who?" Sakura managed to ground out.

Karin's eyes flashed with anger. "Don't growl at me like you care. You're not a part of this anymore. You should go now, before auntie comes looking. You know how she is when it comes to her babies and Naruto and Menma will be here soon."

"Why? Did you call them?" Sakura huffed.

"Don't need to. There are eyes in half these walls, you know. You walked right into it, cous. You can't get much stupider than that." Karin clicked her tongue on her teeth and shook her head. "I thought you were smarter than that, little miss PHD, or was it PTSD, I can't remember."

Karin set her scotch glass down and wiggled her fingers in Sakura's direction. Magic simmered in the air between them and Sakura drew up her own magic to meet it. There was the sound of cracking when their magics met and Karin grinned.

"Let Madara go, now." Sakura's voice left no room for argument. "He's going back with me, along with the others."

"Oh?" Karin cooed, her lips forming a perfect O. "Are we really going to get into it here, of all places? Really, Sakura. I thought you had more class than that."

"Let go of the chains." Sakura glared at the way Madara strained with the shackles around his neck and wrists.

"Or what?" Karin shook the chains and drew Madara closer, forcing him backwards onto his heels. "You going to actually duel me here?"

"Let him go." Sakura pushed Gaara behind her.

Karin looked hungry. She wrapped the chains around her fist once more before yanking sharply and jerking him back off his feet and over the back of the couch. Something snapped, splintering into stalks of shredded wood upon impact. Madara crashed down with a groan while Karin stepped forward, climbing up the cushions and over the back of the couch in her heels and skirts, never caring for gravity. Behind her the chains snaked up and pinned Madara down to the floor, freeing her hands for more nefarious and dangerous magic. Red magic crackled around her.

"Last warning, let him go."

Karin raised her hands. "Make me."

Sakura surged.

 

Sakura remembered the words she learned from before she left the shadow of the coven.

' _The difference between a blood witch and a bone witch is all in their names. There's not much more to it than that.'_

Sakura had believed the lie for years. In hindsight, she was embarrassed at how naive she could be. She had listened when they told her that all witches were primarily the same, that there wasn't anything more to the labels they picked up after become dames and dons.

The more they clashed, the more Sakura saw it; the lie of uniqueness' death.

Blood favor made Karin fast with her magic humming so close to the surface, but her blows didn't stick and sink as well. Sakura's magic was heavier and slower, but carried far more heart when it struck true. Bone favor made her stronger than stone.

The game between then was speed and strength; winning hinged on who balanced their strengths with their weaknesses better. Karin had the advantage of tailored practice keeping her spell casting fit, but Sakura was far more rested and ready to unload spell after spell.

Between the two of them, the game of stamina would always favor Sakura, but especially after Karin was weak from a blood letting. The difference was like a lake verses a sidewalk puddle.

It didn't last long, but seconds were hours when magic was hot in the air. It felt like forever to Sakura who made her body a conduit.

"Repel."

"Force."

"Break."

"Unbalance."

"Strike."

The commands came out so loose and easy. Sakura would shout them while Karin seemed to kiss the air with her words before flickering out of focus. Unlike Sakura, she didn't waste as much time on hand signs or gestures to guide the flow of her magic.

Sakura crossed her hands in an X formation over her chest and shouted 'shield' before uncrossing her arms and shouting, 'shatter!' with her fingers spread wide.

Karin reached up to try and shield, but the magic was thin. That was the difference between a blood witch and a bone witch. Sakura might not have been able to catch Karin, but that mattered less and less when the fight was head on.

The bones in Sakura's hands had been broken and fractures so many times, making the calcium buildup thinker in the healed places. She had forgotten what that felt like until her magic was rushing over it. As the seconds stretched forever, more details glared at Sakura, bright and unyielding.

Karin slouched against the couch, blood trickling from her nostrils. The red color made a pretty contrast on her paper white skin. Sakura thought Karin looked like the marble from the receiving hall, with her veins standing out darker and closer to the surface; some still pulsed with magic.

"No fair," Karin croaked, sounding even more out of it than before. "You're supposed to be out of practice. You reek of inexperience. What was it they said about old dogs? You're too old to be learning new tricks without a teacher. You're not a little girl anymore."

Sakura folded her left arm across her chest, resting her hand above her heart and holding it there. It shook worse than the rest of her and she knew it was because of the accident years ago. Magic made the nerve damage harder to ignore.

Bone witch didn't mean flesh witch.

"You went easy on me," Sakura said.

She approached her cousin and stopped at arm's length to crouch down. They were at eye level when Karin finally looked up and grinned. Blood dripped out of the corner of her mouth.

Somehow, she still looked pretty. Sakura could believe there were still dozens of boys and even girls who would be willing to kiss Karin, bloodstains and all. Karin had always been the 'pretty one' of all the cousins. Labels like 'pretty' got you to all sorts of horrible places though, and Sakura didn't envy Karin for that, not one bit.

"Are you going to be okay?" Sakura whispered.

"You're cute, cous. You should know better than to worry about the witch that'll stab you in the back the second you turn around." Karin did her best to hike her eyebrows, but even that effort seemed to exhaust her.

"You shouldn't have fought me if you were feeling so bad," Sakura hissed. "You were practically dead on your feet. Why did you have to go and be a hard ass about letting Madara go? You should have known you wouldn't win in that condition."

The golden chains had all but faded. Madara rose to circle around the chair and join Gaara who flanked Sakura from behind. He didn't seem any worse for wear and there were no outwardly signs of distress or abuse as he rubbed his pale wrists.

Sakura noticed that his black slacks and white button front long sleeve were not the ones he had left Sakura's house in. They were nicer, newer, and didn't stand out as much. He had rolled up his sleeves a quarter of the way and didn't bother to fix them as he crossed his arms and watched the scene unfold. Beside him, Gaara was just as silent.

"You think Auntie dearest would have liked to hear from me, how I let the outsider waltz in and take something else from the family? She's pissed you have the house right now. She's pissed you showed up her sons. She's pissed you were able to do something the boys and I couldn't do. Man, it would have been nice to see her face if I was the one that broke the curse. What a sight that would have been. Now all I'll see is that…that look, the one she makes when she sees a water stain on the coffee table, or dirt on her hardwood floor. I couldn't even keep the familiar she gave me."

"Kushina? What right would she have to do such a thing? Kakuzu was the one who-"

Karin reached up and bopped Sakura on the nose. "Silly rabbit, who do you think he works for? She told him he could be your familiar if we took the others from you. There aren't a lot of years left for him now that Mito has died."

Sakura curled her lip before she could stop herself. "I'm not taking a familiar. It's barbaric."

"That's cause you don't understand anything about how any of this works. You turn your nose up at the rest of us and tromp off to get a fancy education and a perky little job perfect for all your tidy vests and penny loafers."

Karin's words were acid, but Sakura didn't flinch.

"You think you're better than the rest of us because you don't use your magic, but all that makes you is  _stupid_. You're sitting on a goldmine of power. All those Shinobi are one step from zombie food. They're 'vessel empty' as the old farts would say. Once their magic runs out, so do their bodies. They're not going to feel whole unless they're tethered back to this world." Karin swallowed and blinked back a headache before saying more. "If they don't get witches they go back to being screaming ghosts on the moorish highlands."

Sakura flinched at the truth of it. There had been no equivalent exchange made when Sakura gave form to the ghosts haunting her house. It didn't make sense to make something out of nothing, even when there was magic involved. Something had to be exchanged to make the transfer work.

When witches pulled creatures from the other worlds to form familiar contracts, there had always been something offered up in addition to the rites of wedding or the rites of binding or even the more rare rites of scholarship. Sakura hadn't done any of that for her  _ghosts_. She hadn't thought she needed to. How was she supposed to know they were shinobi and not spirits trapped in limbo?

"There are other ways to avoid such a fate. I'll find a different way."

Sakura didn't meet Karin's eyes, but instead watched the trail off red glisten as it trailed down Karin's smooth face. Blood leaked from her left eye now.

"Maybe, but you don't have years to explore that possibility. Mito killed a man for Kakuzu's original bonding rite, and with her gone he's got maybe one or two more years before he loses it and the decomposition catches up with him. Too bad no one here wants him. Your friendly barn ghosts on the other hand…I doubt you harmed a fly to manifest their bodies. You think you can get away with four-five, no six," Karin hesitated before finishing, seemingly caught on a wave of dizziness that forced her eyes to close and her head to sway. Karin reached with her hands to steady herself on the floor. "Those six freeloading magic users who have no claim on this plane of reality. Kushina said you have weeks before the first one snaps back."

Sakura wanted to bite out that she hadn't know that when she pulled the ghosts out of the madness they were once trapped in. It wasn't her fault she forgot the step in the process that tethered them to this world.

Sakura heard Gaara and Madara shuffle behind her, and remembered Konan was a flower pinned into her hair. Now wasn't the time to snap out excuses.

"I'll figure something out," Sakura said before whispering. "And I only pulled out five."

"Yeah…" Karin closed her eyes, slouching even more. "Maybe, but in time? Naruto and Menma have the blue brothers…you know. I'm a slush but those two…huh…heh. Yeah, those two will give you a run for your money. You're not up to…snuff."

Karin sighed and it was a sound that rattled her from the inside out. Her eyes went slack as her efforts to try and kept them open ceased. She slouched the rest of the way and would have fallen if Sakura hadn't reached out to catch her.

"What are you doing?" Gaara asked. "She tried to hurt you. Why are you helping her? I thought she was our enemy."

"Maybe that's how it is, but even if she is my enemy, Karin is still my cousin and she is still a girl that's been chewed on by far nastier jaws for far longer than she deserves. I can't leave her like this."

"Will she come after us?" Gaara asked.

"If they tell her to, Karin will obey, but that doesn't mean I have to be cruel." Sakura felt an emotional weight make her weary. "I think there is enough cruelty in this world as it is without me having to add to it. Let me be kind even if it's foolish."

The last of her words came out as a whisper and Sakura wasn't sure Gaara or Madara heard, but that was okay. Her words didn't need to be for them as much as they were for herself. It was easy to be angry and hate. Karin and her were on opposite ends of the chessboard, dressed in different colors, but that didn't mean Sakura had to play the game.

Karin was light as paper when Sakura moved to lift her cousin and set her down on the daybed not far from the fireplace. There was a throw blanket draped over the side Sakura yanked down to unfurl and drape across Karin's form. Her dress was lovely in sinful ways, but Sakura doubted it would do much to keep her warm in the library.

Sakura turned when she heard Madara draw up behind her. He was all smiles and rakish black eyes that promised something more. He reached for Sakura's hand just like he had when they first met. When he spoke his words were just as warm and sugar coated.

"I was afraid you wouldn't come, but I think I knew better, somewhere in my heart. I had faith you wouldn't leave me to her clutches." His smile stretched and his eyes danced. "You were lovely in all your magic."

Sakura chose not to react to the touch, fearing he just did it to get a reaction out of her. Behind him, Gaara was glaring at Madara's back, though he said nothing.

"I'm sorry I realized my mistake so late. I shouldn't have trusted Kakuzu or risked the three of you like that. I should have known better."

"You couldn't have. Until the matriarch witch showed up, it really was how Kakuzu said it would be. He went through the process of getting us new names and identities in this world when she interrupted and had us…reassigned. Naturally the woman wanted me, I'm gorgeous, how could she have resisted me?"

Sakura snorted before she could help herself, and dropped his hand. "That and I think you look like a boy she used to have the most massive crush on, way back in the day. It explains why she was so excessive with the chains." Sakura glanced back over her shoulder at her sleeping cousin. "The last one ran away."

"He must have been handsome," Madara muttered, mode souring. He took a half step closer to Sakura and put on a new smile for her. "Don't worry about what she said regarding a body. I'm sure I'd be able to find one for use if I actually tried to look. You can have me bonded to you before the end of the week."

"You don't need to think like that, I'll find some other way around this situation. I might have been a paper witch for how much I studied. Mito's barn has a lot of books, I'm sure one of them will have some insight."

Marina raised his chin and Sakura saw his lips part ever so slightly as he watched her from a new angle. His tone changed when he spoke next. "If you say so, but…I don't mind being bonded if it was with you."

"Karin and the rest of the family might treat it lightly, but committing yourself to another person in a bond, even the most basic level of one, is something that should be entered into with fear and trembling. I'm not ready to be responsible for another soul, so I shouldn't.

His voice was still soft when he spoke to her. "It's not so much your responsibility as it is a…partnership. It might be nice to have a partner in this strange new world."

Sakura looked behind Madara to see Gaara, who was watching the exchange with silence and keen attention. Sakura didn't know how she felt about that.

"We can talk more about this later, but right now I'm tired and Karin was right when she said the walls here have eyes. It's only a matter of time before more show up and I'm not in any condition to exert myself." Sakura winced at the feel of her next few words before letting them loose. "I'll have to come back for Kisame and Zabuza another day."

"Agreed," Madara quickly voiced, turning around to stand at Sakura's immediate side. "Those two can handle themselves until you are in a better condition to be taking on twin brats in bad clothes."

"You've seen the twins?" Sakura asked, heading with Gaara towards the door. As they walked the redhead reached out and grabbed onto the sleeve of her dress, silently latching onto her.

"Worse, I heard the pair of them. The blond one never shuts up. Zabuza might kill him. I would if I had to be stuck with a brat that happy. It's bad enough to have to endure the stink of someone who's chakra was implanted."

Sakura stopped walking, catching Madara by his shirt sleeve. "What did you just say about Naruto?"

"He's a brat. I'm sorry if he's your cousin but-"

"No, about his chakra-magic, being implanted. That's not his magic?"

Madara scoffed. "Maybe some of it is, but there is a foreign agent in the child's chakra, along with his twin. They share a power source that is additional in nature. No, I doubt those boys were worth much when they were born, but I've seen it done before. Clan heirs have to be strong and perfect. If they're anything less, clan heads fix it."

Beside her, Gaara flinched. Sakura might not have noticed if she didn't feel it from where he hung onto her. She reached back for his hand and entwined her fingers with his, not caring that those were her damaged fingers, the ones that shook outside of her control. He didn't seem to mind.

"How could you tell something like this?" Sakura asked.

Madara shrugged, eyeing the way Gaara held onto Sakura with a critical expression that turned colder as the seconds went by.

"I've seen it done before, so I was sensitive to it when we were first introduced. The blond wanted the 'grumpy one,' and his brother wanted the chakra powerhouse, but even though I was passed over-tasteless shit heads- I was in the room when they both tried to force the others into bonds. Zabuza and Kisame resisted. They felt it too, the other chakra."

Sakura glanced downwards, trying to remember the last time she was around either cousin while they used their magic. She had heard more than mere stories about how powerful both boys were, and how gifted the coven would become. Sakura always assumed that was because her cousins were born that strong. Madara's revelation changed things.

What had Kushina done to ensure her boys were in positions of power? What had Kushina done to ensure her boys inherited the clan? What had Kushina done?

"That doesn't matter now. We need to leave," said Gaara.

Sakura nodded in agreement before tugging both boys along. Madara grinned at the contact, but Sakura didn't pay it any mind as she navigated the hallways that were starting to seep illusions like slime between the seams. She cut through and dispelled what she could before finding the main hall that led them out. It was empty without a soul in sight.

Someone was in the hallway behind them, but Sakura didn't slow and instead urged both males into a faster walk straight out the front door and down the stairs at the front.

She meant to lead them back to the marble receiving house and magic them all back, but her plan dried up when she saw at the base of the main exterior stars was a car already waiting. Leaning against the hood was Kakuzu, missing the sunglasses and grace mask. When he looked up Sakura could see the gray lacerations still healing across his face.

Fresh wounds.

'Those weren't there yesterday, were they?'

"Get in. Your magic won't work in that place anymore. They've cut off your means of escape since you stepped foot on the property."

Madara growled at the sight of the shinobi but Sakura tugged him along and guided both boys into the back seats before whirling on Kakuzu with magic as thin as a knife's edge along her fingertips. It was a warning when she pressed it to his jugular.

"Don't betray me again or I will show you how much of a witch I can be," Sakura warned, eyes narrowed and deadly.

Maybe she hadn't been much of a witch when he first looked her over, but he would regret dismissing her if he didn't recognize the storm she could be now that she was pissed.

Kakuzu didn't seem bothered by the knife, but was oddly fixated on her hand flaring with magic. He looked up and their eyes met. She could see the color of her green magic burning in his oddly colored eyes.

"I won't," he promised.

Sakura stepped back with her magic and he rounded the car, opening the door to the driver's side while she slid into the passenger's side.

The radio was off but Sakura jammed her thumb against the button until it clicked on. She punched in a number and turned the dial up until music was all she could hear.

* * *

 

 


	5. Paranoia / Body Problem

 

* * *

Chapter Five  
Paranoia / Body Problem 

* * *

Madara took the couch and Sakura woke before all of them, when it was dark and there was still fog from the sea spreading far and thin over the world for as far as she could see.

Sakura stood outside in her nightgown, unable to feel the cold or the damp touch of the morning air. She felt like she didn't fit inside her body. Her body was one shape, her mind another, and her soul a third completely unique shape. Nothing fit. She was out of alignment and she needed to figure out a way to hide it or ignore it well enough to get on with her life before the fog burned away.

The sun wouldn't wait for her. The world wouldn't wait for her either. The demons stirring would have to be put on hold for another daybreak.

So, Sakura built that wall up high in her mind and layered it thick then thicker. She closed her eyes and stepped into the fog barefoot. When she came back her toes were nearly blue but the ghosts were a little further.

'That'll do,' she thought to herself before letting herself back into the barn where the rest of her new friends continued to sleep.

Konan rolled over in bed and cracked open an eye as Sakura prepared a simple breakfast, but didn't wake enough to roll out of bed. Not a sound could be heard from the loft, and Madara was an unmoving lump.

Sakura waved to Konan, even though the blue haired woman had buried her face back in the pillows and didn't see the motion. Sakura typed in her code for the day and closed the door behind her.

Hours later Sakura clipped together another stack of graded scantrons and closed out of the grade book program on her computer. It glitches, started to stall, and then proceeded to flash the 'program not responding' sign. Sakura held her breath and prayed it didn't do the dick thing and lose all her grades just as she went to save and close out of the program.

The program loaded, circling and circling until it flashed a new pop up and closed out peacefully. Sakura sighed in relief. She had over two hundred students, and while those grades were only for maybe 40 or so, it would have been a bitch to re-enter them.

"At least this is a problem I can solve," she muttered out loud, rubbing the skin under her eyes. "Thank God for the mundane things in life."

"Is that really something worth wasting your breath on?"

Sakura paused in her recline and turned slowly, eyes narrowed cautiously at the figure darkening her cubicle doorway.

"Sorry," Sakura drawled. "No consultations without prior appointments. You should have called ahead."

Kakuzu held up a white paper bag with a pink logo plenty cute with cartoon ghosts drawn as quotation marks around the name.

"What did you get me from Spooky Sweets?" Sakura asked, feeling her irritation abate once the smell reached her. It was fresh, whatever it was.

Kakuzu offered the paper bag up to her and Sakura unrolled the top to peer inside and grin at the assortment of Crepes. There was a variety there that clued Sakura into the fact that Kakuzu hadn't known which she preferred and bought them all just to be sure. That was pretty big for someone as penny tight as him.

Sakura reached for one called The Monster Mash, a peanut butter, banana, chocolate, and whipped cream filled crepe that was still warm in her hands. She bit into the soft texture of it and melted a bit inside.

"Okay," she said around the bite in her mouth. "You've earned my good graces. Pull up a chair. What do you want?"

"To see how you were doing," he gruffly explained.

Kakuzu glanced around before pulling up his scarf and descending into the chair used by plenty of nervous students seeking advice on career paths and class help. He made the chair seem tiny.

Sakura licked the whipped cream that spilled out the sides off her lips, using the back of her thumb to wipe away whatever missed her mouth. "I'm dandy. You?"

"What of the others?"

Sakura shrugged, pushing the rest of the treat into her mouth to hum in contentment. She didn't rush to clear her mouth and answer him, but waited with a water bottle in hand until she was ready to wash her treat down.

Kakuzu glanced away, into the hallway with a posture ready to wrestle. His shoulders were wide, perfect to brace against In a fight. He wasn't as beautiful as Madara, but there was a broken sort of attractiveness to his hidden self. But maybe that was just Sakura's strange fascination with creepy things clouding her judgment.

Whatever.

"The others are fine. Thanks for asking. Anything else you want to know before moving on?"

He faced her and even though most of his face was hidden, the glower was blindingly obvious. "Don't belittle the situation. I am still the legal authority in charge of the property you're residing on."

"Are you, or is that a lie to cover for how auntie has her hands in your puppet strings? Let me be clear with you, Kakuzu. I don't believe that it was your intention to trick me and that is why we're having this conversation and I'm not burning your ass across the campus limits. Still, don't think I'll be stupid enough to blindly trust you like that again."

Sakura leaned back in her seat, crossing one leg over the other, bouncing her ankle and making the sheen on her nude colored heels stand out all the more. They were pointed at the tips and promised to hurt if she decided to drive them into his leg.

Casually, she dragged the side of her thumb over her teeth, licking up the stray grains of rough sugar that still stuck to her skin.

Kakuzu hesitated before answering and he might have swallowed too, Sakura wasn't sure under all those layers.

"I won't lie and say that the matriarch Kushina doesn't have some hold over me. I am still employed in her family's service. But, I want to believe that may change soon."

Sakura scoffed. "You thought you would get that from whoever showed any talent for the curse on that place, eh? I remember what Karin told me. You handed over Madara and the others because you thought you might get something out of it."

'He'd get to be your familiar in exchange for the others…'

"I did. It's what I wanted."

"You're a crazy asshole if you think you'd use me for it." Sakura grabbed the edge of her chair and leaned forward. "I'm not Mito."

"I know that." He was watching her oddly. "She couldn't do what you did. She said she would, but there were always excuses for years without ceasing. It was only at the end that she admitted the truth about her limits."

"Boo hoo." Sakura clearly wasn't amused by the tone of her voice. "Look how much I don't care. I heard the stories too. She was a Matriarch, one of the best coven heads in years which means a total tool of a person. That's not going to be me."

"It could be."

Sakura felt the temperature drop a fraction as her skin tingled with goosebumps. Her breath went stale in her throat.

"Not a chance."

"Even if she hadn't been at a disadvantage, you would have outlasted Karin with that stamina, and with training you would be able to best even the twins. You have the capacity for greatness."

"Hell yeah I do. Doesn't mean you have to have anything to do with it."

"I've had decades under a master, and years training her offspring. I would be the one you'd benefit from best if you want to defend your new path in life."

"There is no new path in life." Sakura scowled at the thought. "I'm not changing anything."

"Things are changing, like it or not. You will have to change."

"Not the way you want me to. I'm not going to be one of them. I have a life, a real life, a life I sweat and bleed for. I'll be in debt for this life for years to come. I refuse to let that all be for nothing. I worked too hard to get where I am right now."

"If you wanted it badly enough, that debt could be erased." He leaned forward. "You'd just have to want it badly enough."

Sakura felt an angry roll in her gut. She knew the family had ties all over and enough money to drip in it, but it would always make Sakura uncomfortable to know that lifestyle was a few choices away. She could have tried to do what Tayuya did, and maybe Sakura would be where Karin is now. Maybe closer.

But at what cost?

"I'm not going to entertain such fantasies," Sakura said, closing her eyes and turning her face away. "And I'm not going to take you as a familiar. I told the others I didn't plan on taking them on either. I'm not changing my mind on that."

"I'm sure they'd like that, but I'm the only one that could benefit you so perfectly. I have the skill set suited for you. The house would be yours."

Sakura went still.

"What?"

"The Barn, it would be yours. I have that power. The will is mine to execute how I see fit. A case could be made that you've earned it via the spirit of the law in Mito's will. It and all the lands around it would be yours without having to last the six months."

With the debt hanging over her head it would be decades before she might be able to afford a place and call it her own. Hard work would get her far, but not far enough.

"You're playing dirty."

"I'm playing smart. I wouldn't claim to be anything but the most useful familiar. I'd be better than any of the others. I wouldn't even need another sacrifice. That price has already been paid." Kakuzu scoot his chair closer to her. "I'd also be the least intrusive into your life. I already have a life here, a job, an apartment, and an identity independent from you. Little else would change."

Sakura tilted her chin up and reached for the white paper bag left on her desk. She reached inside and pulled out a Yummy Mummy crepe, filled with white chocolate, whipped cream, strawberry, banana, and topped with Oreo bits. She bit into the treat and some of the tension eased out of her shoulders.

"You like that one?" Kakuzu asked after another minute of near silence, filled only with the sounds of her muffled chewing.

"I like all of them." Sakura licked her lips and swallowed the last of it. "Everything on their menu is perfect."

He nodded, filing that information away for later. "I had hoped you would like them. It seemed like the sort of place you would eat at, but I wasn't sure what you would order off the menu."

Sakura paused, mentally taking inventory of her physical appearance. Yes, she had bubblegum pink hair, but the rest of her was professional and scholarly. She had always been intentional in presenting herself as a serious figure, all dressed up and looking ready to blend in with the other 'normal adults' on campus. She was in a gray pencil skirt and a white scoop collar blouse. Not even her heels made her stand out.

"I think you might have misjudged me just because of my hair, but that's fine. I got treats out of it."

Kakuzu waved his hand at her desk. "Not here, but when you moved in, you brought your personality with you. That side of you seemed to appreciate the cute things in life." He eyed the bag in her hands.

"Don't act like you know me so well. You had no idea I even had any magic in me until two days ago," Sakura said with an animated arch of her eyebrow that could make lesser students tremble. "I haven't forgotten."

"I've made it a point to learn," he amended.

Sakura's look was baleful. "I don't believe you. Before last week I was invisible."

She had made sure of it. She had never tried to be a part of the inner circles in the coven, but after the accident she had taken great pains to erase magic from her life the way her mother had wanted her to since the beginning. No one else in the household had magic, and some days it was too easy to forget there was magic in the world, but Sakura never truly forgot.

To the rest of the watching world, it probably looked like a reaction to trauma. No one was supposed to question it when she stopped trying to teach herself magic, and no one did.

His voice broke into her thoughts. "You were not as invisible as you may think you were."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Sakura snapped, suddenly feeling the sting of pins in her heart. Was it emotional pain or literal metals packing her hurt? Some days it was hard to tell. In that moment, Sakura didn't know.

"Even if it's a single drop, there is still Uzumaki blood in your veins, Ms. Haruno, and that makes you a matter of casual interest. True, we don't spend every waking minute of the day tracking your movements or filing reports on your credit card activities, but should your behavior deviate from an accepted norm, the family was always there, poised and ready to react," he said.

"And have they?" Sakura asked, holding onto the arms of her office chair like she depended on them.

Kakuzu glanced at the bag. "How do you think I knew one of the places where you liked to eat?"

If Sakura didn't like the treats so much she would have thrown the bag and what was left inside at his face. She didn't care if his expression was muted instead of smug, she felt like he was making fun of her.

"You can leave now," she bit out. "We're done here."

Kakuzu looked panicked for a moment, but he stood. "I can help you."

"You can leave."

"Wait."

He reached inside his coat and pulled something out of the inside breast pocket. It was a small white envelope with writings on the outside. He offered it to her but Sakura only glared. Neither hand moved to accept it.

Kakuzu ducked his head and set the envelope down on her desk. It clinked like there was metal inside it. By the shape through the paper, Sakura could tell there was a key in it. The writing looked like an address.

"It's to my apartment, the one they don't know about. You can come to see me if you change your mind…or if you don't. You'd be safe there, I promise."

"Why don't I believe you?"

Kakuzu didn't move, but watched her steadily without his gaze wavering. "It's safe. I'll swear to it."

"I want to believe I'm dangerous enough now to not care, but I know better. Safe or not safe, I'm not going to trust my aunt's little guard dog. Go."

She looked away and listened for his leaving. When she didn't hear him exit Sakura closed her eyes and turned even further away and waited. She waited without noticing how much time passed, but when she turned, he was gone. She should have known better than to expect a sound.

* * *

Sakura finished up what work she could, taught her last class of the day, and prepared the materials for the next week of classes. The sun was low when she packed up and left.

And the end of the hallway outside her offices she stopped and grinned.

"Hey, redhead, you're in the wrong wing."

Gaara turned and the relief was instantaneous across his face. He jogged over to her and reached for her hand, sighing onto her shoulder. Usually he was taller than her, but in heels, they were equal in height. He fit on her shoulder.

"You're impossible to find. I couldn't feel your chakra at all."

"How long have you been on campus looking for me?" Sakura asked through a chuckle. Her fingers found his hair and scratched his scalp softly enough to not hurt. He melted further.

"Kakuzu came to the house. I left not long after that."

Sakura's fingers stilled. "How did you get here, honey?"

Gaara didn't pull his head off her shoulder, but moved to look up at her. "I walked. The university is big, you can see it from far away and I got directions from your books."

"Honey, that must have taken you hours," Sakura said, reaching for his face to feel it. His cheeks were warm. "When did you last eat and drink?"

She moved him off her shoulder and he huffed in agitation while she turned back to jog to her desk. She had an empty tumblr under her desk and there was a water filter at the end of the hallway. She took her cup and filled it up, pushing it into Gaara's hands and making him drink it.

When he was done with all of it he tried to give it back to her but she only filled it again and made him drink again.

"But I don't want to."

"Hush, it's good for you."

Gaara grumbled, but did as he was told, wiping the excess water off his lips once he was finally done.

"You know we can use chakra to help sustain bodily functions. A few hours without water or food won't impact a shinobi so terribly."

"I've heard of people doing that with their magic, but it's not a good long term idea and no true substitute for water and food. I'm sorry you had to walk all the way here. Kakuzu was here over three hours ago."

Sakura took the tumblr back and took it to the sink at the back of the workroom. She would clean it out when she came back in the morning.

"You're very kind."

Sakura staggered and balked. "Th-this is just basic knowledge. I'm not…it's nothing special."

Gaara hummed, shaking his head. "No, you're kind. You're caring like it's so natural you don't even know you're doing it. It's a nice change."

"As opposed to what? I'm sure plenty of people would have given you water if you needed it. Konan said you were like a president or a leader of some sorts back home."

"I'm not your leader though, and I never asked you for anything. You cared just because that's who you are." He reached for her arm again. "Will you buy me the sweet drinks with whipped cream again?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Ah, there it is, you were buttering me up, weren't you?"

Gaara made a face, recoiling at the comment. "You're not a lamb chop. Why would you need butter?"

"Oh, Gaara, you're too teasable. What am I going to do with you?" Sakura laughed, throwing her arm around his shoulders and leading him out of the building.

"You can buy me yummy star drinks."

"You're going to bankrupt me at this rate. Just, don't tell the others. They'll get jealous they didn't get anything."

"They didn't walk all the way over here to find you or spend that much time lost on campus. They don't have any right to complain."

"How did you get out anyway?" Sakura asked. "I thought one of them might have stopped you."

"Well, it's not like I announced what I was doing. If I had, Madara would have tried to tag along and Konan would have stopped both of us." Gaara chuckled to himself. "He was super pissed when he woke up and saw you were gone. He thought your life would revolve around him more, the selfish bastard."

Sakura reached for her keys once she saw the edge of the parking lot. The weight of the metal was familiar in her fingers and for a split second she thought about the key Kakuzu had left on her desk, the one she had swiped into her draw to forget about, the one she ended up going back for, the one she eventually tucked away inside her wallet with the folded up envelope.

She looked up and scanned the surrounding area casually, noticing a few familiar faces and a few she had never seen before. That wasn't unusual.

Everything looked normal but there was a new itch under her skin, one she couldn't scratch, one she felt in the texture of her bones. Was someone watching her now and reporting her movements back to the coven?

Gaara's hand on her arm made her blink and recognize where she way. She had stopped moving and Gaara was looking at her oddly now.

"Sorry, I spaced out there for a second."

Was the kid in the red jacket watching them, or just looking off in their general direction?

"Is it something I said?" Gaara asked.

"No." Sakura took his arm and led him to the passenger's side of her car. "I just need to make an extra stop before heading home."

His eyes seemed to light up. "Is it for my drink?"

The man in the red jacket was gone, but Sakura's feeling of paranoia wasn't.

"Don't worry, we'll stop for that too."

To the rest of the watching world, it probably looked like a reaction to trauma.

The magic had been too wild and too wicked in her bones and the end result was the destruction of a medium: her hand. Even after the flesh was stitched back together and her bones mended, there was a phantom in her hand that haunted her without mercy.

Sakura woke up suddenly and the world was dark, just like the last few nights. Ever since she dipped into that well of magic and disturbed the waters, the nightmares wouldn't leave her alone.

Would that be her fate once more; to swell with too much power, loose control and shatter so tragically? She saw it again and again in different ways each night. Her nightmares were as creative as her, and it was starting to gnaw on her.

Sakura sat up in bed and looked over at Konan who was still asleep. The older woman probably knew more than she was letting on. Sakura had caught Konan staring across the dinner table more than once, and there never seemed to be an end to her questions of concern.

_'Are you feeling well? Are you tired? Are you in any pain? What can I do to help?'_

Konan was kind in a way Sakura didn't know how to deal with. Sakura wasn't sure she knew how to handle being pampered, but she was quickly realizing she didn't like making Konan worry.

Sakura was extra careful leaving the large bed they shared. It was big enough that the shifting from one end had nothing to do with the other. Konan sleep on, undisturbed.

There were enough rugs layered up over each other, atop the edges of one another so that her steps were muffled and warm as she crossed the enormous room to the corner where the kitchen was.

The Barn was a single room downstairs, separated by a few Japanese rice screens painted with cherry blossom trees, a few short bookshelves, and other various objects of furniture.

Sakura walked the expanse, keeping the fabric of the white nightgown with the buttons close to her chest using her bad hand. She felt like she needed to use it for something, but didn't want to fill it with magic again.

Everything was dark and the room was wide and long, but Sakura had been living in The Barn long enough, she knew where everything was and expected the shapes in the dull darkness.

She didn't expect the spinning red eyes snapping open to pin her where she stood.

Sakura's heart jumped. Magic jumped with her heartbeat and she felt it rising up to her hands before she knew what she was doing. But it was a split second reaction and she squashed the response as soon as she recognized what was happening.

"Madara," she hissed, keeping her voice as soft and quiet as the angry edge in it allowed. "What are you doing you creeper?"

"You were awake."

The red in his eyes bled away and he blinked, turning his face away as the color returned back to normal. When he looked up at her again his eyes were just as black as the sky outside. It was hard to see him in the dark, but there was enough moonlight to make out his outline.

"I was going to get some water," Sakura said, nodding to the fridge. "You scared me."

Madara nodded, humming. "You sure you weren't going to go for another walk in the fog until your toes turned blue?"

Sakura's mouth opened and closed but no words came out.

There wasn't much light to see by, but she could see the way his face shifted in an expression of frustration. He clicked his tongue at her.

"Don't look at me like that," Madara muttered. "I wasn't trying to blame you or make you feel guilty for it."

Sakura tried to make her voice work again. "What I do on my own in my own time is not…it doesn't have anything to do with you. It's nothing."

"You don't have to feel bad about it, I said I wasn't blaming you." He moved on the couch, scooting over so there was more room beside him. "Come here."

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin up at him. "I said I was up for a drink of water. I was going to go back to bed after this."

Madara held out his hand for her to take. "Trust me for a quick mo', my love?"

His voice was soft like velvet and Sakura loved the way he sanded off the edges of words like moment to make them sound soft. She wondered if that was his magic. If he had been born into a coven instead of a clan what sort of witch would he have been? Sakura wasn't sure unlike with Konan and Gaara. Both were easy to pin, Konan was a paper witch and Gaara was a sand witch. Madara was the real mystery.

Sakura stepped to the couch but stopped at the edge of where he wanted her to sit. She remained standing, staring down at him.

"You know there is an Uchiha coven here? They're far, location wise, but the Uzumaki heir Naruto is good friends with one of the Uchiha sons. That name mean anything to you?"

"You heard Kakuzu call me that, didn't you?" Madara said. When Sakura nodded he smiled up at her. "Yes, it's a family name. I'd believe it if they said they're my descendants. My younger brother's brood, no doubt."

"They don't have red eyes like you."

Madara looked surprised by her words. "They don't? It's the bloodline trait that we were famous for. Are you sure?"

Sakura glanced off to the side. "I don't know, honestly. I only saw them once or twice and never really when they were using magic. It's probably something they hide if they did have such an ability. I wasn't as well connected as others in the family coven."

Madara reached for her and this time she let him pull her down onto the couch to sit beside him. He didn't try to do anything more than that, but held her hand on her lap and watched her think.

"Naruto isn't a…terrible person. He's immature and a little full of himself, but I know that's largely because of how he was raised. He was heralded as the second coming of god if you listened to some of them talk about him and his brother. Menma is strong too, but Naruto's the real golden child; mother's favorite."

"Were you close with either of them?"

Sakura shook her head slowly. "No, just the girls mostly. I was worried about the two that came through with you. Naruto isn't a bad person so I don't think he would do anything terrible to them."

"And the other one, Menma you called him? Would he harm someone under him?"

"I don't know, but I don't think so." Sakura closed her eyes and reached up to run her hands through her messy hair, wild and tangled. "I think they're fine, but I can't help but think it's still a mess I have to fix."

"You want to liberate Kisame and Zabuza from the heirs." Madara's words could have been about the weather they were so unbiased and casual. Still, he held her hand. "Are you blaming yourself for this?"

"Who else is there to blame?"

He leaned in closer to her, thumb rubbing the knuckles on her hand. "There are some things in this world that don't require blame. It's natural to want to explain messes and blame helps us do that, but this is not a burden you can shoulder all on your own. This is not your fault. Kisame and Zabuza are fine."

"How do you know that?" Sakura hissed. "You don't know what the family is like. I don't know everything about them either, but I know enough to know they're not to be messed with."

"I doubt it is worse than the hell we were trapped in. You're right, I don't know what the family is like, and Karin wasn't the most fun to be around when she got testy with the chains, but the years of genjutsu was incomprehensibly worse. Believe that."

"You think they're really fine?" Sakura asked in a whisper even quieter than all the other whispers shared between them.

"Neither likes taking orders very well, but they're cut from the same cloth, so I know they'll be fine. They know how to duck their heads and brace for blows well enough that a couple of teenage boys won't be a problem."

Sakura groaned, holding her face with her free hand. "They're not teenagers anymore. None of us are. This is a serious matter, not a game." She dropped her hand and the expression on her face was one of resolve. "I have to get them back."

"Then what?"

She turned and looked at Madara, expression crumbling. "Would you have preferred it if I left you with Karin?"

"No, I'd rather be with you, but if things were different, I don't know if I would have minded the bondage that much. There was plenty of food and nice things that kept me happy. It all paled in comparison to something else I wanted, though. I don't think Kisame and Zabuza shared the same devotion to their savior as myself."

Madara lifted her hands to his lips and ducked his face over her knuckles, touching his forehead to her fingers first before kissing the back of her hand in a tender show of reverence that was different than the flirty teasing he had shown in front of Konan and the others when they first met.

"I want this," Madara whispered, touching her hand to his head again and hiding his face. "Here, I want to be here. Use me as you will. I can not be made whole without you, nor would I want to."

Sakura tugged her hand away and he let her recoil from his touch. Madara's face stayed downcast, but he moved off the couch to kneel in front of her and touch the front of her knee through her nightgown, fingers as light as a ghost's.

"Madara…"

"Familiars or knights or chevaliers, it's all the same, different words for the same devotion. Please, let me be sworn to your service."

Sakura moved her knees to the side, away from his touch but Madara didn't try to follow.

"I have no service. You're asking for something that doesn't exist. I'm not…witches only took human familiars during times of desperation or war. Any other time regular familiars were summoned from different realms and they're always animals or creatures."

"You speak of summoning contracts."

Sakura waved her hand. "Whatever. Before anything else, it's a barbaric practice that robs a human life of complete free will. Some covens have it banned. The fact that you're bringing it up like this makes it feel like you're bracing for something and I'm not a part of that lifestyle. I'm barely even a witch."

"You're a great witch. There is deep power in you, and someone will try to take advantage of that, regardless of what you believe. You need to be ready to defend yourself."

"I'm fine. I can take care of myself."

Madara looked up at her sharply. "For how long and at what cost?"

Sakura glanced back over her shoulder at the form of Konan in bed to see if she had moved or was woken by their conversation. She was still in the sheets, but Sakura hissed and lowered her voice.

"That's my problem. It doesn't have anything to do with you."

"I want it to have to do with me."

"Shhhh, be quiet. Shush." She waved her hand in front of his face and huffed when he didn't react. "Listen, it's not something I'll discuss when I'm still worried about those other two. I have to fix one problem at a time and-and you don't know anything about me. I've been building up magic up for years but-"

The words caught in her throat.

'I'm broken.'

She looked down at her left hand and grabbed the wrist, bringing it close to her chest. There were still phantom pains there and she believed there always would be.

"Plus…I have a job and students I need to take care of. This wasn't supposed to be my life."

Madara watched her for a while, eyes narrowed keenly. After a while he nodded. "I understand. I was afraid you would hear this from someone else first and rushed my words. I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't upset me." Sakura still held onto her wrist but didn't mention or gesture to it at all. "It's just everything else right now."

He looked up at her, eyes searching. "It's a lot for you. We were born into this, bred for it even. I've always been an agent acting out tragedies with my chakra. I can't imagine my life any differently, just like I can't imagine how much of a shock this must be to someone like you."

"Someone like me?"

He was still watching her. "You said I didn't know anything about you, but I know a few things. You're strong, in more ways than one, but you're also proud and you're not allowing others to see you suffer, which is why it's walks through the fog until your toes turn blue."

"It's not like that."

"Love," he chuckled, rising to sit on the couch next to her. "I can see that much. Come here."

He reached for her hair and started to comb through it using his fingers. Sakura turned her head away and he stopped her from pulling away with a soft whisper in her ear. He said it would help, so she stilled and let him comb her hair with his hands.

He worked all the tangles and knots out, then separated her hair into different parts. She felt him tug those parts up and then down. Some he tugged to the side before crossing with others. His fingers tingled on her scalp as he braided her wild hair back.

"There you are, Love," he whispered into her ear before kissing the side of her forehead. "I've braided a charm in for peace and good rest, so back to bed. You'll be better in the morning."

And he was right.

When Sakura woke in the morning the braid was still intact, snaking down over her shoulder in neat plates she couldn't believe stayed so well through her sleepe.

And also, just like he said, Sakura felt well rested enough to address the issues without allowing them to overwhelm her. Her hand would be fine. She would be fine.

It all would be fine.

* * *

There is something called the body problem. Taking on a familiar requires a sacrifice of equal or greater value that must be paid in flesh and blood. It might as well be necromancy for how accepted it is in the realms of magic.

Mito paid for Kakuzu with a body, a man was killed for the lowest level binding contract and sacrificed on that altar. Out of the still warm flesh she wove Kakuzu's spirit into the body and bound him to her with a silver thread of fate pooled around the spindle in her heart.

If Sakura were to take on any of the recently summoned as familiars she would need to find a way around the body problem, because there was no way she was killing someone to fashion vessels of flesh for anyone.

But what did that leave her with?

Could she substitute the human with the animal? Not if she wanted them to speak like bleating calves or cluck like chicken.

Could she use a long dead corpse from a grave, or maybe one freshly dead from natural causes? Not if she wanted them to be able to live. If she brought them back using a corpse they would be no better.

Could she make a contract with them without a body? Not unless she had an unending source of magic to sustain their form. She didn't have enough magic to sustain herself and another person for longer than…maybe a few weeks.

Sakura had a body problem.

* * *

After Gaara's visit she asked the three living with her to stay at home while she was out, and not to stray for fear of the Uzumaki taking some form of action.

Three more days passed and the weekend arrived, but Sakura wasn't planning on staying home for it.

"It's not an invitation, but I'm willing to bet Naruto and Menma will be there, so I thought I would invite myself."

Sakura tossed down a local newspaper in front of Konan and Madara. Gaara was still in the kitchen scrambling eggs.

"What does it say?" Gaara asked.

"Settlement Day Weekend Celebration," Konan read out loud so that Gaara could hear. "It looks like a sort of celebration local to the community of Providence. What does this have to do with those boys?"

Sakura reached over Konan's shoulder and pointed to the caption under the photo, listing several family names who were present in the photo. Among those names was a Kushina Uzumaki and Tsunade Senju. Both women were seated at a long table in the photo with several other older women who were 'lifelong patrons' to the community. The other photos on the page showed kids and families enjoying the booths and reenactments.

"The Uzumaki family always attends. They're big on being a visible force in the community, whatever that means. They like to throw their money around often enough. Naruto and Menma don't follow the traditions well when it comes to representing the family, but they are always there for Settlement Day and the Harvest Moon Festival and the Hallow's Eve Festival and the Autumn Carnival."

Sakura paused to stare down at her fingers, suddenly realizing how many festivals and carnivals they had in the autumn months.

"It's the most fun part of their burdens, so they'll be there if there are games and the like."

"But that doesn't mean they would bring Kisame or Zabuza, would it? If they didn't have control over them don't you think they would leave them behind?" Konan asked, looking back at the photo. "Zabuza and Kisame don't look like any of these people. They'll stand out too much."

Sakura felt a roll of guilt in her gut, but spoke out anyway, ignoring the feeling. "If it was me, I'd transmutation them into animals or something else and bring along. If I had to…and was a bad guy, I mean."

"You can do that?" Madara asked, looking up at her with a grin that reached his eyes.

"I wouldn't do that, it's wrong," Sakura quickly replied.

Madara hummed, waving his hand between the pair of them. "Not at all. You have the power, use it. That's your right. Plus, something like transformation isn't even harmful."

"Transmutation," Sakura muttered in correction. "And even if something is not harmful, that doesn't mean it's ethical. I wouldn't do something like that unless they were dangerous and aggressive. If that's what auntie really did for her sons, then it's because she just wants to control the situation more fully."

There was a noise in the kitchen as Gaara finished and set the pans aside to dry from their washing. The last of the food he had cooked was on his plate sitting next to the sink. He picked it up and brought it with him to the table, joining the rest of the group.

"So what are you going to do about it?" the redhead asked. He angled his fork into the egg and bacon mix to scoop up a mouthful.

Konan pushed a tall glass of milk towards Gaara to help him wash down his breakfast while still staring at the photos in the newspaper. There were several more once she flipped open the pages, and even more writing about the history and traditions surrounding their celebration. The more she read, the more her eyes narrowed. Sakura didn't know what that meant, but she knew it wouldn't change her resolve.

"I'm attending the event. I want to confront Naruto and Menma first about this and hopefully it won't come to blows like it did with Karin. I don't think I could win a fight against both of them."

"Not with chakra reserves like those," Madara whistled before leaning back and looking up at Sakura. "But I'm sure you could find a way to be creative about turning the tides in your favor. Magic or chakra or whatever rules your power isn't the only thing that decides a victor. Kisame has more chakra than I, but you think that oaf could take me?"

Konan snorted, breaking concentration just long enough to look up from the page and smirk at the Uchiha. "You're full of yourself."

"Because it's true. How you use your abilities is almost always going to be more important than how many abilities you have. You're a smart girl. Fight smart."

"I didn't want to fight at all if I can help it."

"Sounds like you need a shinobi, master of deception and all that," Konan joked, looking back at the paper.

"Or two," added Gaara.

"Or three," Madara corrected strongly. He turned in his seat and reached for Sakura's arm, grabbing for her wrist. "Or just one. Remember what I told you."

Sakura swallowed and nodded. "It won't come to that. I think I'll be able to reason with Naruto if I can get him apart from his mother. His brother will be harder, but as long as auntie doesn't get involved I shouldn't need to lift a drop of magic from my pools."

"So what does that mean for you?" Gaara asked, watching her.

Sakura tapped the paper's headlines. "Vendor stalls opened at seven but attractions don't start until ten. I've got an hour and twenty minutes to get ready. If you want to tag along be ready by then."

* * *

 

 


	6. Monkeys and Elephant

 

* * *

Chapter  Six  
Monkeys and Elephants 

* * *

Their original outfits were almost too perfect for blending in with all the eccentric personalities that insisted on attending in period dress, and Madara was only too happy to return to his earlier things. Konan offered to as well, but Sakura said she had something set aside for the pair of them.

Gaara's clothing was a bit torn and in messy tatters, but he said he would be find in the clothes she had bought for him earlier; loose jeans and a tucked in red and blue flannel long sleeve. Sakura insisted on running her fingers through his hair and messing it up just enough to make him look the right sort of disheveled.

"And you, come here for a sec," Sakura said, turning to Konan.

She led the older woman to her corner of the bedroom where a pair of wardrobes helped separate the sleeping place from the library nook in the closest corner. Inside one of the older wardrobes Sakura pulled out a long dress.

"I of course found these in the Barn when I was looking for something else. I thought they were originals at first, but they're just imitations. All the same, I think they're perfect for the situation. Which one would you like to try on?"

Konan reached forward and peeled the two masses of fabric apart to see their designs more clearly. They were both dresses in the same style with slightly different colors. The skirts were long and full, one maroon and the other green.

Konan fingered the maroon one and smiled up at Sakura. "These look a little nicer than the ones in the photos."

"Of course," Sakura sighed. "Mito was an Uzumaki after all. Most cosplayers will dress up as dowdy pilgrims but the Uzumaki always made a point to dress up the 'wealthy settlers' that could afford pretty colors."

"No aprons and bonnets?" Konan teased.

"And no coifs, those are the inside bonnets the working ladies wore. No, Uzumaki would rather be caught dead than caught in an apron or coifs, and in that I think we have some common ground."

Sakura pulled at the green dress and held up one of the sleeves. At the elbow it started to flare out and dissolve into spider like eggshell colored lace that matched the collar. Once upon a time the lace had been white, but there was too much time in the designs to be a color so young.

"You don't hate your family."

Sakura blinked and looked up at Konan, seeing that the older woman had already pulled up the dress and pressed it to her body to admire the cut. When Konan looked up Sakura was already watching her.

Sakura didn't know how to respond other than with an awkward, "Oh, really?"

Konan smiled knowingly.

"You're more afraid than hateful. You were exceedingly kind with Karin, and that's not because of pity. Naruto and his twin are the same, I bet. You don't want to fight them less because you think you will lose, and more because fighting isn't something you want between blood."

"Is there a person alive that came into the world wanting to hate their family?" Sakura asked, voice low with hesitation.

Konan shrugged and stepped away to unfold the rice paper screen and close both Sakura and her in so that the boys outside wouldn't be able to see. Konan shed the nightshirt and stepped into the dress with her back to Sakura, so Sakura did the same.

Konan asked for help tying the dress closed first, but after Sakura helped Konan turned around to tug Sakura's waistcoat closed. Konan's fingers were soft, pushing the hair aside and out of the way before lacing the last few places and tugging the parts of the dress closed.

"Turn around, let me see," Konan said, tugging Sakura back to be looked over.

Konan nodded in satisfaction after a quick check before fussing with the lace around Sakura's neck. It was crumbled until Konan took the care to make it smooth. She then moved back to fold up the rice screen, huffing at how she had to kicked at the folds of her dress to move freely.

"It's cumbersome, isn't it?" Sakura asked.

"It's probably the only reason men were able to catch wives back then, because they were too encumbered to run away and look for something better," Konan joked. She looked back over her shoulder at Sakura and winked.

Sakura felt her cheeks warm and ducked her face in time to miss the way Madara was glaring across the room at Konan while Gaara read what was left of the newspaper articles.

"The rest of us were done ten minutes ago," huffed Madara.

"And we're still not done unless you think this hair is ready for the outside world," Sakura easily answered, blush gone.

"You look fine to me," Gaara said, looking up from the newspaper.

Konan laughed, chuckling at the way Sakura flustered anew. Madara glared at the redhead and then back at Konan. He stood and crossed the room to Sakura, tugging on her hands and leading her back to the couch where he sat her down and turned her head away.

"What are you going to do?" Sakura asked, leaning into his hands like it was a habit.

"A milkmaid braid, don't worry, it's something simple. Konan, get me that comb from the bathroom. I need some help sorting out these parts."

Madara clicked his tongue at a messy tangle before massaging her scalp. She felt the cold of the plastic comb and moments later Madara was weaving her hair up and over and up and over until it started to take on a new shape.

"I don't have enough hair for him to braid, incase you were wondering," Konan said when she caught Sakura staring. "My hair will be fine."

"I wouldn't help you with your hair even if you asked me," Madara grumbled. There was a pair of bobby pins trapped between his teeth that muffled some of his words. "Don't distract my artwork."

Konan rolled her eyes dramatically.

"I don't think I've ever been pampered this much," Sakura sighed, melting under Madara's fingers. She had grown to love his hair braiding and how it always relaxed her in addition to dressing her up. "I'm glad I didn't cut my hair again."

"It's nice to have long hair," Madara agreed. He shot Konan a pointed look over the crown of Sakura's head before going back to his work. "It's one of the reasons I keep mine as long as it is, conventions be damned."

"Trust an Uchiha to be so vain." Konan shook her head with a look close to pity in her eyes.

"Jealous?" Madara talented.

Konan didn't respond, but moved to sit alongside Gaara and whisper to him about the pictures in the paper he was still looking at.

Madara chuckled to himself and then doubled his deadications to his handiwork. He twisted the last bit of Sakura's hair in on itself before spearing it with another couple of bobby pins. With gentle fingers, he turned her face to the side and shifted to perch on the couch in front of her. He reached for the comb once more to tease the hair around her face out and then sweep it away from her eyes.

"Pretty enough to paint," he breathed in appreciation.

Sakura's eyes flickered to the empty easel where her ruined painting had hung before the whole mess with witches and magic ever stirred up. It was still empty and no sign of the long lost sea landscape remained.

"I wouldn't know. I only painted landscapes," she finally said, meeting his eyes before the silence could stretch too long. "And I don't paint anymore."

"Why not?"

"Why would I?" She countered with a careless roll of her shoulders. "No one has the time for it."

He reached for her ruined hand, or maybe it was just the closest one to him, and held it softly. He didn't say anything, just watched her. A moment later she felt the force of his magic probing, seeping into her hand to draw out her own.

Sakura jerked her hand away suddenly and stood. "We're all set here, so we should get going before we miss too much," she said. She couldn't help the odd pitch in her voice that made her words seem rushed.

Gaara looked up from the newspaper and held aloft her chain of keys, shaking it once to get her attention before tossing them her way.

Sakura caught them out of the air and turned, skirts swirling with her as she headed towards the door. Behind her, the others picked themselves out to follow her to the car.

Gaara was the first one there and had slid into the front passenger's seat before any of the others could realize what that meant, but Sakura never said anything more than, 'get in' to them once. So, Konan and Madara spared each other a nasty smile and climbed into the back seats.

"Will there be those star drinks there?" Gaara asked in an eager whisper once the car engine came on at the turn of her keys.

His excitement made Sakura's smile soft. "There will be plenty of sweets and treats for you all to try and enjoy, not just Starbucks. And it's not good for you to be drinking that every day, it's okay to take a break in between."

Madara reached up from behind and flicked Gaara on the back of his ear. "We will be fine on our own without draining your resources any more than we already have. I, at least, now have a social security card and some other papers that Karin said I could use to apply towards a job. I don't like that Kakuzu fellow, but I might use him to find employment if we are to remain within your good graces."

There were words in her throat that sounded like, 'don't worry about it,' but came out sounding more like, 'ah.' Sakura wanted to not have to talk to Kakuzu again and experience the agitation his presence incurred, but she also wanted to be able to pay the utility bills and her student loans.

She made a comfortable salary, but only just barely. It was comfortable for her and maybe one dependent, not then if they liberated Kisame and the other one, Zabuza, it would become five dependents that ate like horses. Even with the house inherited, it would be painful having to take on more dependents.

She wasn't born into wealth like the main family. She was only imitating it with knock off handbags and discount lipstick. Naruto and Menma would never have to worry about where their bread came from, but Sakura remembered a time not too long ago when bread was a luxury. It was one of the reasons she enjoyed fancy specialty drinks so much, because things like those had been far beyond her reach for years, while being on the corner of every street. Something so small and insignificant was the grain of rice that would tip the scale into financial red.

"We can discuss matters like that later," Konan said, staring out the window. "For now let's take responsibility for our friends and at least make sure they're safe."

Sakura made a note of agreement and switched on her blinker before merging into the far right lane and following it off the Main Street towards where she knew overflow parking would be. The downtown area was bustling and busy and she wasn't in the mood to be stuck in a car searching for a parking spot closer to the bulk of the festivities, so she found one safely at the edges and told the others it would be a short walk.

It clashed with the outfit, but Sakura slipped on a pair of aviator shades to keep her from wincing at the sun. Madara was the only other one that accepted her offer for shades, sporting a near identical pair that, arguably, looked much better on his face than hers. He was already getting stares and they weren't even out of the parking lot.

Sakura thought that Konan and Gaara were both beautiful and attractive in their own unique ways, but Madara was something people would gawk at. He was just a little bit too extra to be normal, and that made people stare. And it didn't hurt that he smiled rakishly at anyone he caught looking his way, meeting their eyes until they blushed and broke eye contact to skitter away; both men and women.

Konan reached for Sakura's arm and folded it over hers, following close to her side. Gaara was quick to tag along in Sakura's shadow, but his hands were stuffed into the pockets of his jeans and his shoulders slouched along with the rest of his body.

The closer they got to the park where the nexus of the celebration pulsated, more and more men and women in traditional costume were spotted. Sakura could pick out the locals as well as the tourists. There were some people in period dress, but it was the completely wrong period or it followed the fashions of a different country. Some knew this and didn't care, some didn't and were just happy to be out any enjoying their time.

"I can smell pie," Sakura finally said, inhaling deeply and almost tasting the apple and pumpkin and cherry. It made her salivate and have to swallow. "I'm sure there are carnal apples around here too."

"I don't know what those are exactly, but I want some," Gaara admitted. He stepped up to draw even with Sakura as they stepped under the shade of a curved tree mostly gold colored. The sunlight made some of the leaves seem to glow.

Someone nearby was playing on banjo and someone was getting upset at him for that. A family with children in blue jeans and homemade bonnets ran through the park laughing. A couple of friends cried out, having spotted each other finally. The crows begged for food in caws and cries.

Sakura had to stop and feel the world around her to believe it. How many years had it been since she last went to a celebration like this. It had been five or six years, she wanted to say. College classes and then her job teaching those same college classes all seemed so much smaller in her memory. She couldn't remember why she hadn't come back to this, even thought the logic left in her brain reminded her about the money and the exhaustion and that half dozen other jobs she had needed to work to survive as well as she had.

What a shame. It was lovely under the red and gold leaves watching the world step back into another time and place to celebrate like a community. She felt something prick her heart when she saw children begging their parents for the funny bubble drink that made other adults laugh Over their own home brews. Vendors were selling local honey and wears straight from their gardens.

"Sakura?"

Konan called out to her and Sakura blinked before staring up at the much taller woman. They were still hand in hand but Gaara was closer than before, reaching for the long detail of lace trailing out from Sakura's flared sleeves. Sakura glanced to both and saw they were both looking at her with the same expression.

"You looked like you were going to float away," Gaara murmured, touching the skin of her elbow once before his hand dropped back to the lace. It had felt almost like he had been checking to see she was still truly there.

"I'm fine, it's just been a while since I've been to this sort of thing and I was trying to remember why I stopped coming. It's so nice here, like from childhood. I used to come here when I was much younger with my mom and dad and beg for all the different games and treats."

Sakura rolled her shoulders in something close to a shrug and felt herself fill up once again. She fit back in her body once more. Things were right in her bones.

"Are there games where you think we'll find those boys?" Konan asked, looking up over the heads of those close by. Out of the three of them she was the tallest.

"We can walk around a little more and see. Speaking of finding people, where did Madara go?" Sakura asked.

Gaara and Konan turned around to look behind them and both made sounds of disappointment or displeasure when no sign of Madara presented itself.

"Good riddance, I say," muttered Konan. "We can do without him. Lead us around, Sakura."

So Sakura did.

And she didn't know if it was because she was lucky or because she was unlucky, but it wasn't long before she saw someone from the family, and it wasn't much longer after that she heard the boyish laugh that never seemed to grow up drifting over the heads of others from booths on the other side of the park.

Sakura turned and saw across a crowd of thinly populated people to where Naruto stood, cowing another boy that looked just like him into trying the booth. A safari style shoot out with a play shotgun set up in pairs for four different sets of competitors.

She was crossing the lawn, stepping off the path and into the grass, before she knew what she was doing. Konan and Gaara followed faithfully, noticing the change in her posture.

Twenty yards away and she could feel the casual magic clouding around Naruto's self as he turned his attention back to the game. It had begun again and he was using a dead eye to take down what he could of the pop up tin animals. Every shot sounded off like the animal's deathcry.

Menma wasn't as fast but every shot hit, all the same.

Sakura was behind them as the game ended with a shrill bell ring and their totals came up in digital red numbers. Player 1: 185 points. Player 2:250 points.

"How did I lose to you?" Naruto whined. I hit so many more than you did!"

Menma grinned at his twin over the side of his shotgun. "You didn't chose your targets well enough. Monkeys are worth more than elephants."

"But both stink when they're dead."

Both boys turned when they heard the sound of her voice. Recognition was clear for the both of them and Sakura could see the reflection of her face in both set of cruel ocean blue eyes. The effect was like being pinned on a cork board among a dozen other butterflies, insects, and oddities.

Then Naruto smiled and Sakura knew she really was trapped.

* * *

It was years ago, before the accident, before the forgetting, before she grew up too much to know better when she first saw what it meant to be on the outside. It was back then, before she knew, she thought that maybe there would be a place for herself in that world.

Every other month she and her mother spent a tea on the property with several other branch family members. It was a time when those in the good graces of the main house were invited to vye for favor.

Families with children always did better.

That was where Sakura met Tayuya but it wasn't until a little later that the main family children were allowed to mingle with their 'lessers.'

Karin was older than the boys, being around Sakura's own age. Even as young as nine she left an impression that she was only waiting for the world to be worth her time. She was clean and neat, skinny and tall, all things Sakura wished she could be.

Karin was a striking child for how pretty and proper she was standing among the adults looking down on the branch children through her red rimmed glasses that needed to be pushed up every so often. She was the daughter of Mito's first born son and the oldest grandchild, but neither father or mother were still alive to raise her, so she was absorbed into Naruto's immediate family to maybe be a potential future coven leader. That prestige made her a memorable figure.

But Naruto was a different sort of memorable.

He was young, too young, but there was a flood in the world around him, leaking out of his poor control that was meant to save his magic from waste. He couldn't hold it all in with any level of skill or learned control, so he just let it seep out of him because he always had more to burn.

Sakura felt the jarring in her bones before she saw him. His presence raced ahead of him, clouding the air with burn magic, fraying her nerves. She watched the corner of the house, waiting for the grandson of Mito to come through that door like the terrible, ugly force he was. When he stepped over the threshold it was like being tricked. He was tiny, much younger than her, and too adorable looking for such acidic, burn smelling magic.

Behind him, his twin trailed in, eyes downcast, hair darker but still blond. His chakra was burnt around the edges too, but he didn't leak it like his twin did. He seemed to have a better control over it, or maybe he just had less of it.

Kushina had looked Sakura and a few other distant cousins over, before deciding she only like Tayuya and maybe the pink haired one if she had more magic than she let on.

And that's how the bi weekly lessons started. Once every two weeks she would spend the weekend 'sleeping over' at her cousin's home to live and learn her heritage.

She lived that way for years, and grew to know her cousin as they aged into their magics. Tayuya was all wild all the time. Karin was clipped and perfect in her spells, memorizing latin to emphasize her casting. Menma was a brute, terrible and awful in the power he could summon.

Naruto….

Naruto was the horror you never saw coming.


	7. Child of Prophecy

Chapter Seven  
Child of Prophecy

* * *

"Sakura, it's been so long. You haven't changed a bit." Naruto reached over and slapped his twin with the back of his hand. "See, I told you."

Menma just grunted, leaning back to glare at Sakura while Naruto stepped half a step forward and crossed his hands behind his back and rocked on his heels. His grin was goofy and disarming.

"It's not been that long. I was there for Mito's funeral."

"Not that it mattered," Menma huffed. "No one thought you cared anyway."

Sakura felt the skin around her eyes grow tight, but she bit back the snappy remark she wanted to hurt him with and instead forced herself to inhale. The air was crisp and pumpkin flavored in her lungs when she exhaled.

"People are allowed to think what they want, I guess."

"It's too bad that's not the reason you're here to see us, through." Naruto said. He threw his arms back behind his head and laced his fingers under the base of his skull. "Mother said you would show up here like this."

Something cold and sharp entered her heart at the sound of his voice, suddenly lower and slower. There was weight in his words that hadn't been there before. It made her have to swallow and lick her lips wet before speaking.

"I don't know what you heart, but yeah, I was looking for you. The both of you have something you shouldn't."

"She said you would say that too," Naruto sighed.

"Well, your mother isn't stupid then. I didn't think she was. Then, did she also tell you why I would need to ask you to give up those two?"

"Yeah, she mentioned something like that. She said that you would ask for them back if you were getting ready to contest the inheritance order. I mean, what do you need six familiars for? All that power smells fishy, don't you think Menma?"

"I only pulled out five," Sakura interrupted sharply.

Menma whistled, looking at her like she was a dog that should know better than to not heal at the dinner table.

"Kakuzu is number six. None of us want him."

Sakura scowled. "I already told him no. There's no way I would do something like that."

"See," Naruto interrupted. He looked to his brother with wide eyes and a boyish smile. "I told you she wouldn't take the old lady's leftovers."

"That's not the issue I have with it," Sakura replied sharply. "There's no need to take a familiar and it's demeaning to that person's personal freedoms. Zabuza and Kisame aren't summons from a netherworld."

Menma snickered, shoving his hands back into the pockets of his black, leather jacket. "Could have fooled me. They looked like monsters."

Sakura took the moment in which both brothers turned to each other to snicker over their shared joke to scan their body for signs of something that could have been Zabuza or Kisame. Konan had made herself a paper flower because she was a paper witch, but all Sakura knew of Kisame and Zabuza was that they were water class witches-er, shinobi. Kisame looked like a shark and Zabuza looked like a barracuda if she had to pick something sinister and deadly from the sea. Neither Naruto or Menma looked like they had anything unusual in addition to their dress that could be the summoned boys.

"But," Naruto said, letting his chuckle fade away. "It seems those two weren't the only monsters you get to worry about. Want to introduce us to your friends over there?"

Sakura glanced over her shoulder to see Konan with Gaara on her arm, looking quite put out with thinly pressed lips and a simmering glare to her eyes. Gaara was just as dour, but Konan made it seem stylish.

"They're not bonded either," Menma murmured, tilting his chin up at the pair. "Funny thing, don't cha think, bro?"

"I told you I had no intention of taking a familiar. I have no use for one, my life's not in danger and there is no war among the unmortaled races. I liked my life without the magic in it. That part wasn't a lie."

"I still can't believe you," said Naruto.

"That's a first," Sakura snorted. "Weren't you the brat yelling that over and over again in the gardens as a child?"

Naruto flushed and his eyes flashed red when his brother laughed behind him. The blond turned on his heel and hissed a sharp 'shut up' at Menma before jerking his hand to the side. His magic burned hotter around him and the air shimmered in effect. It was wasteful, but Naruto could burn all day long and still be ready to go, so it didn't matter to him.

Around them, the people attending the celebration continued to play and mingle, but subconsciously they turned away from Naruto and Sakura, not aware of the why or how, and found interests elsewhere. The voices still carried, but there was a notable difference in the noise volume of the immediate areas.

"Someone is going to notice," Konan hissed to Gaara, glaring at people who were walking away. "What is that brat thinking?"

Naruto scratched at one of the scars on his cheek and glanced back over at Sakura. "Do I still look like that same little boy, Sakura chan?"

Sakura folded her arms, holding her elbows across her front. "You grew up a little bit, but not enough to move past throwing tantrums when you don't get your way,"

"But you're the one here asking for things that don't belong to her."

"People don't belong to people."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "They're not people they're shinobi. They're not witches that can share demands. Right now, they're at the mercy of their betters until they gain new bodies or forge contracts. How much magic have you seen them use?"

Sakura forced herself to shrug. "Enough to know they have it."

"That magic is all that's keeping them corporeal. They run out and they return to the void. It'll only be a matter of time before they forge a contract with someone just to save themselves from that sad fate in the realms of madness. Really, you should know all this by now. It's not like you were the one the called dead last in classes?" He made a shocked face in mock. "Oh wait, that couldn't have been you because you weren't there. I beg your pardon."

"Even I know that much," Sakura muttered. "I said I would find a way around that."

It was Menma who laughed next. "Don't bother. Even if you did abandon those silly convictions and take those two there as familiars, you wouldn't have enough magic in excess to take on the other boys. Familiars spend your magic. You don't have enough for more than two. Not even Mito granny had more than five at a time, and two of them were human."

Sakura let go of her elbows and moved her hands to settle on her hips. "So you think I should leave those two to you because you can handle the magic drain? Humor me, what would you do with them?"

"Sorry Sakura chan," Naruto cooed playfully. "That's coven business only. You said you were better off without us, right?"

"You can't answer because there is no good answer. Witches haven't needed to amass power for any decent reason since the sixties." She spoke even though she doubted the remembered the history of the coven collapses from that era, when witches turned on their own for petty land grabs and blood feuds. Witches hadn't lived like mafia scum in decades. "Your world is fine."

"And you would know that how?" Menma taunted, sounding bored.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Don't be dramatic."

"Did you know about the new sound coven poaching our witches, then?" Menma went on, lifting one hand out of his coat pocket to inspect his nails. "Or did our precious branch house cousin not tell you herself. She's joined a new pride and is burning for a different war song."

Sakura tried to remember hearing about that, but the details hadn't ever come up. Last Sakura heard, it was only a boyfriend that Tayuya had latched onto, not a new coven.

"So?"

Naruto clicked his tongue at her nonchalance. "You're spineless if you think it's nothing. Maybe you're fine and dandy living a life without magic, but some of us still know better. A new coven blooming in our lands is as good as a war cry. Watch yourself that you not be swept up on the wrong side."

"You think that's a good enough excuse to hold onto Kisame and Zabuza? Your paranoia makes it okay to keep people like pets."

"You don't know any better," Naruto growled. He snapped his teeth at her and she saw the shape of his canines a little more pronounced than the others. His magic flared a bit more, too. "Run away if you're not going to entertain me."

Sakura reached into her own magic and felt it sing in her bones with just a hesitant prob. "You want me to entertain you, kid?"

Menma's eyes went wide as he looked to his twin. "You idiot, not here!"

But Naruto wasn't listening. HIs eyes, once so wide and clear with the most beautiful shade of blue, now burned as red as his magic. The scars on his face turned darker too. He leaned into his magic with a manic grin.

Naruto pulled out a card from his back pocket, long and thin like those belonging to a tarot deck. Sakura could see enough to know there was an illustration, a boarder, and a banner along the bottom with a title. He moved his fingers and the cards split; one became two.

"Try and take them if you think you can."

Sakura's eyes narrowed as more of the details became clear to her. The first card was of a figure with blue skin, the other with a man colored gray. Both were surrounded by waves and frozen in a moment with their eyes closed. Icons danced around their heads in lovely detail.

"Let them go, you know it's not right," Sakura said. She spread her arms out and her bones felt tickled with more magic.

Magic leaked out of Menma first, spilling like wine from a goblet to splash on the ground and turn sentient enough to run a trail around them, closing them inside a barrier that shimmered. The rest of the world would never know the things they did from inside.

"You seriously going to do this you crazy bitch?" Menma hissed, looking pained as he watched his twin and then her, inflate and glow with more magic. He pointed to where Gaara and Konan were outside the barrier, looking lost and searching for a way in. "It's two on one."

"Not quite, boys."

Menma whiled and Naruto craned his neck back to see the dark haired figure towering there. Madara grinned down at the pair of them, red eyes glowing with wicked color.

"It's rude to gang up on a lady," he chastised with a wagging finger.

"Madara, go! I've got this, get outside," Sakura interrupted, remembering what the twins had said about the shinobi using up their magic and slipping backward into the madness. She thought she had a year to figure out to save them all, but if Madara used his chakra magic here, then how long would she have left with him?

"No can do, love. I'm in it with you no matter the outcome. Plus, you couldn't believe I'd really turn away when I saw such an uneven fight slanted in a brat's favor. Really, look at this kid." Madara jerked his chin at Naruto. "What a spoiled beast."

Menma turned and took a step back towards his twin, so that they were back to back. "You're not involved in this, so don't risk it, shinobi."

"He's an Uchiha," Naruto hissed. "Look at his eyes, just like Sasuke."

Madara's smile faltered and the first signs of annoyance made the pattern in his eyes mutate and shift into something new.

"That's a rude thing to say about someone. I assure you, I'm completely and wholly unique here, but if you have to test me to know that, then be my guest."

"Not like you'll be able to do anything with those eyes of yours. You try, you'll use up all the magic you need to sustain a corporal form." Menma looked away from Madara to Sakura. "You going to let him burn away for you and your pride like that? I thought we were supposed to be the heartless ones."

"Madara, I don't want you risking it," Sakura hissed, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. She remembered fingers in her hair and long braids down her back at the cusp of midnight. "I don't know how to help you yet."

"Sure you do. They said a bond as familiar would do the trick, love. You'll not find anyone more willing than me."

"I don't want to do that," she confessed.

Something in her tone made him pause and glance back over his shoulder at her. He swallowed and then dropped his head. "I…It won't come to that, love. Let me run your defense."

If she had to, if it turned terrible enough, she would have done what was needed to save him. She could see it playing out. If there was no other way, Sakura knew she would have forged a contract with Madara, but did he know that? Was Madara the type of person that would take advantage of that sort of situation and force her hand to get what he wanted? How much did he want than contract? What was he willing to do to get in on a blood oath as her familiar?

Could she risk it?

Sakura touched his neck and he never expected it, so there was no resistance from her magic. She saw his eyes go wide and then swivel her way as the rest of his body went limp.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, using more of her lips than her voice to convey the meaning of her heart. She blinked and looked up to the twins, moving to stand in front of Madara. "It'll only last five minutes, but by then this will be over."

"You think you could really take on the two of us with just yourself?" Naruto laughed. "That's pathetic for a smart girl like you. What's gotten into your head?"

"I don't need to beat you, I just need to win," Sakura mumbled into the collar of her dress before lifting her head and letting the magic bleed into her eyes. She felt them flash green and then the energy was in her hands.

Naruto was there too.

More fox than boy, he skipped in under her arms and then came up under her chin with fingers sharper than claws. It forced her back and he swiped again, missing just as much. Sakura pulled magic over her arm and the calcium made them thick with an extra layer of protection that inspired the most awful sound when Naruto dragged his claws through it.

The extra layer spread all over her body and she felt it build up around the temples on her head like glittering horns.

"That's new."

Menma chuckled, pulling a switchblade out of his leather jacket. He gripped the wood handle and grinned before a wind as wicked as his smile followed the swipe of his arm, arching towards her.

Naruto's voice was an echo, just as mocking as he flickered out of view, ducking to avoid the blast of magic charged wind. Sakura was fast but not fast enough. She crossed her arms in front of her and braced, taking the brunt of the force with a cry.

It rang out in her head, the same though again and again. Holyshitholyshitholyshit. She was actually doing it, she was fighting Naruto and Menma all on her own using magic. What was she thinking? This wasn't something she should be able to do. Karin was one thing, but the twins…

They were a level she could only watch and try to keep up with. What had she been thinking taking both boys on? She was going to end up in magic bits. What-was-she-thinking?

'You don't need to beat them, just win.'

Sakura's eyes flickered to Naruto's back pocket and she saw the shape of the cards. The borders were metallic bronze and gold, catching shreds of light greedily as Naruto moved.

Sakura pushed more of her magic into the calcium deposit at the edges of her skull and let the horns grow. With a final push the layers of her horns began to flake like petals on a overgrown bloom. Sakura pushed even more into the spell and let the quartz clear flakes drift until the world around her was awash with petals. With the light and her hair, some of them seemed pink to her.

Sakura surged and the distribution quadrupled until it was impossible to see through, and that's when she moved.

She was slipping in between her own petals, low to the ground and turning sharply behind Naruto. She had a hand in his pocket and lifted the cards. 'Just like the bell test.'

She moved once more only to feel something like a car ram into her side. She went flying along with the rest of her petals as Menma's cyclone spread out. He shook his hands and the winds ruffled his hair one last time before settling.

"You weren't supposed to hurt her," Naruto growled to his cousin.

"You were the one that clawed first."

"Please, if you couldn't tell that was playful I don't know what to say other than get your eyes checked. Lay off, idiot, there's blood on the grass now." He shrugged and then muttered something else. "Plus, only I'm allowed to hurt her."

Sakura blinked and looked down to see her side shredded and raw. Blood leaked over the rips in her dress and smeared in the grass. That was her blood, but the pain hadn't caught up with her yet. She had a few more seconds of shock left.

"You're the idiot," Menma grumbled, stuffing his knife back into his jacket and glaring down at Sakura. "You can finish this without me. I'm going to eat."

Sakura grabbed at her side, even as the wounds started to slowly close on their own, remembering how to knit at speeds no other human possessed. It was a trait she could thank the clan for. All Uzumaki witches healed like miracles. Still, everything hurt just the same.

"Ignore him, Sakura chan," Naruto chirped, going over to her. "I should say sorry too, I forgot to pace myself. It goes so fast, you know. It's been awhile since I had to pull my punches so bad. Mom said I wasn't supposed to hurt you too bad."

Sakura groaned as the adrenaline began to wear off and the pain seeped back in like an angry ghost. Her side screamed in pain as more blood trickled over her fingers. It was healing, but slowly.

"She's a smart woman, your mother," Sakura gasped, panting from the pain.

Naruto stopped where he stood and watched for for a moment. Sakura looked up and saw his eyes were strangely transfixed on her wound. The glee was gone from his smile.

"It was never a fair fight," he said.

"I'm not as smart as you thought I was."

"And I'm not as stupid as you thought. I'm even nicer than you think too. See, I'm going to let you keep the cards you lifted from my back pocket and even cover with mom when she finds out about it. You wanna ask me why?"

Naruto knelt down in front of her until their eyes were level.

"Why?" Sakura ground out.

Her teeth were chattering as panic made her shake. Her body was in a state of shock, healing and flooding with chemicals that helped her fight and flee but not think. The magic keeping them hidden from prying eyes still sparkled and Madara still lay where she dropped him. Nothing else changed.

Naruto grabbed at her neck and his finger wrapped around her throat, shaking her. He pulled her forward and his eyes were red and burning. His chakra, usually blue and flighty, was crimson and smelling of wildfires and searing flesh.

"I don't need them," Naruto hissed. "Build yourself up and come for me if you dare, I will always win."

"I don't want anything to do with you," Sakura gasped, feeling the air thin in her throat under the pressure of his fingertips. It made her see stars.

"I'm the child of prophecy,  _not you_."

Naruto shook her and Sakura fell onto her side, hitting the grass with the side of her face. She felt her horns break away. The rest of her bone armor flaked off her as the magic in her jumped loose. She wasn't holding onto it anymore so it had no reason to stay where she grew it.

Naruto was still leaking magic and there seemed no end to it.

What had she been thinking?

Sakura dropped her eyes and lay still in the grass, her throat bare and her hair a mess over her breathed heavy, feeling pain in her hand almost as bad as in her side while Naruto just stood over her. He kicked at the grass in front of her face and she flinched. It was enough to get him to chuckle.

"I don't know what she was so worried about. You're nothing to spare a second thought on. It's a shame though, we could have been great friends. Would you like that, Sakura chan? We could be friends and those two in your pocket could be my gift to you. I like the sound of that."

Sakura closed her eyes.

"I don't want anything to do with you or your family or magic."

"So brave. You're lucky I like you. I'd have popped you otherwise." He snapped his fingers in front of her face and Sakura glared up through the wetness caught between her lashes. "I'd pop you just like that and no one would care. Remember that the next time you come into my house and strut your pretty ass through the halls like you own the place."

The last thing he did was show off his claws and then drag them down across her face in a motion too fast to see. Sakura cried out, tasting the blood leaking into her mouth. The taste was bitter and stung when her tears spilled from her eyes.

Naruto stood and left her, laughing as he passed through the barrier.

Sakura didn't move for a while, feeling the magic start to melt away from the barrier in bits and pieces. It wouldn't come down all at once, and hopefully by then she would be up and on her feet again.

But Sakura didn't want to move.

It was when only the barest traces of magic still remained that Kakuzu stepped through and picked her up.


	8. Orbit

  
Orbit

* * *

 

Sakura closed her eyes again and tried to remember, but couldn't. There was something at the edge of her thoughts, something she had been thinking before Kakuzu found her and picked her up, but she had passed out right after than and the thought was lost in the fog behind her brain.

Sakura swallowed and winced at the feel. Her throat was still bruised and would likely take a few more hours to heal. She was lucky it was the weekend and she didn't have students to see her look like the poster child for abused women needing donations.

"You up for a glass of water this time?" Kakuzu asked, scooting closer to her side with a glass already in his hands.

Sakura blinked and then turned in bed, only to wince at the feel of her side and the ache between her ribs. It had been a long time since she last had to heal rapidly, and her body was a little out of practice. They said the more Uzumaki healed, the faster the process became. There was also some study in the cells during regeneration that linked it to the long lifespans her family was famous for.

Sakura pat the side of her face and felt the bandages. Her lip was split in the marring, as well as a huge chunk of her cheek. Even after it healed, Sakura knew there would be discoloration for a few more days that she would need to hide with make up. Anywhere else and she wouldn't have bothered, but her face was important.

"He scarred my face."

"It will heal, and you're still plenty beautiful."

Sakura took the glass of water extended to her and glared balefully over its rim at the man seated on her bed. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

"You forget who you're talking to. Facial scarring and pity are my speciality." He pulled down the scarf in front of his face and showed off the scars (no longer hidden with magic) that stretched from lip end to cheek ridge. "And that wasn't flattery, just conversation built around facts."

She spared her surroundings an afterthought of a cursory glance and found the room tasteful with minimal decorations and clear functionality. The walls were a faded mint, which might have been odd for a man, but she liked it. There were small, potted succulents on the windowsill and extry fuzzy gray blankets folded over the arm of a sitting chair in the corner, begging to be touched. The desk in the corner looked unused and pristine leading her to assume she was in some sort of guest room. Under any other circumstances she probably would have liked the room, but the circumstances still hurt.

Sakura closed her eyes and for a moment she wanted to believe it was the world going dim and turning off, and not just her sight. No matter how much she wished it, the world would go on turning and the sun wouldn't change for her.

"I wanna say I had him on the ropes, but I didn't even get close, did I?"

"You're too out of practice and Karin made you cocky." Sakura opened her eyes to glare but Kakuzu just shrugged. "She did. She's out of practice too. That's what happens when you fall out of favor and let yourself go. She might have been dangerous if she wasn't such a self pitying layabout."

Sakura's glare turned sharper. "They were abusing her."

"They were using her blood to boost their own magic stores. It's what kept her in such high favor after Mito passed."

Sakura let her eyes shut once more, and this time it was because the effort to keep them open drained her too much; they were weighted curtains over her eyes. With her eyes closed it was almost too easy to paint a picture of how things changed with Kushina taking over Mito's role and cementing a nomination for her boys…Naruto in particular. At least Mito was fair about nominations of the dames and dons. Kushina didn't seem to play that sort of game when it came to Karin or other contenders. That explained why Karin was such a mess.

"Things changed a lot after Mito passed, I take it," Sakura guessed.

"Every new regime of power brings change."

Sakura didn't bother opening her eyes, but she did turn her face towards Kakuzu and give him as much direct attention as she could.

"I didn't know that the family qualified as a regime of power. That's a little scary."

"You were never that stupid."

She couldn't stop her lip from quirking, wanting to grin, but hating how it ached when the skin stretched. "Someone believed I was, otherwise I wouldn't have been let go as easily as I was."

"What makes you think they let go of you."

Sakura thought back and remembered what Kakuzu had told her about being watched. Her credit cards and virtual footprint were all likely their gossip of the hour every odd weekend, but that was it.

The thoughts made her want to look away and focus on something else, like the foxglove flowers in the vase by the door or the pastel watercolor landscapes hanging on the wall. The paintings were all originals and well crafted pieces, likely costing the penny pincher something substantial.

"There was a tail on my house, and then one on my dorm, and a plan in half my classes for the first year. By the time I was a junior they fell away. When I graduated they showed up once for that party, but didn't follow me into graduate school. It was then that I considered myself free."

"They let you slip away, but they still had a hand on your leash; it was just slack so you couldn't feel it."

"Lovely."

Sakura thought there would be more anger, like when she told Kakuzu off the last time he stopped by her office, but the anger was dull and far behind the stinging pain that was so greedy for more and more of her attention.

"What else are you going to tell me, O personal savior?"

Sakura asked mockingly as she forced her eyes to open and her lashes to flutter in his direction. She was able to see his reaction but still couldn't tell what he was thinking or feeling. It had always been hard to tell with Kakuzu. Every gaze that wasn't through tinted shades felt intense.

"What are you thinking now?" she heard herself whisper before she knew what she was saying.

She saw him blink and pull back slightly before making up the distance as he braced with one hand on the edge of the bed and moved in.

"I was honest when I told you this was a safe place. I want you to know what you would be getting into if you didn't have my help, but I don't want to see you hurt again."

"Cute," Sakura cooed, eyebrows arched in disbelief. "You're a real romeo."

He almost recoiled at the words. "I never claimed to be. I was being serious when I said you would need help. Don't you see that?"

She rolled her eyes. "I have what I wanted and I didn't want anything more, so the need for protection has passed. It hurt and it was a little tricky, but I think it's going to be fine if I don't cross paths with the main house after this."

"That's not possible."

"I'm not a witch anymore," Sakura laughed. "I don't use my magic. The past few weeks have been a fluke. Once I figure something out with the others this will be over and things will go back to how they used to be."

"How naive."

Sakura's smile strained. "Ever hear the term 'self fulfilling prophesies?' If I believe in something strongly enough I can sway my fate, sometimes not a lot, sometimes just enough. If I believe it, maybe I can make it happen."

"You don't and you won't."

"You think you know me pretty well, but you don't really." Sakura curled her lip even though it hurt and closed her eyes again. "It will be fine after it's hard for a while."

Kakuzu huffed in agitation, leaning back far enough to cross his arms. "What of the Sound of Heaven coven? You think they would leave such low hanging fruit alone?"

Sakura's mind came up blank. "What?"

"Oh, you didn't know about the antagonistic rival coven growing up along the fairy roads? That's a variable you didn't factor in, am I correct?" He straightened and tilted his chin back into his scarf. "The lands around here are too rich to not be envied by lesser covens. Did they not tell you that in your little witch classes?"

"There aren't enough witches alive to make a coven strong enough to threaten Mito's legacy," Sakura huffed. "And it has nothing to do with me."

"They recruited Tayuya last month, after she failed to inherit the Barn and was all but cast out by Kushina Uzumaki. When she came to visit you it wasn't to get back into their good graces, but to let her new Patriarch know."

Sakura reached out with her hands to find the surface of her bed and brace against it. "So?" Her voice was a mask of indifference woven in tone.

"Karin defected last night. Kushina wasn't happy with her loss of Madara to you and it came to blows." Kakuzu looked away.

"That wouldn't be enough to throw someone like Karin out of the coven. She's blood."

"Correction. She's a blood witch, and more importantly not one of her sons. Kushina doesn't care who she excommunicates anymore and the coven is on the path to ruin or war. Either way, it's not going to be so easy to stay out of the crosshairs and that might be the real reason Naruto gave up the cards to you. Even if his mother is crazy, he's manipulative enough to know a potential ally when he sees it."

She couldn't help but make a face. "Oh, wow, I didn't know that was what he looks like when he's trying to make friends." She touched the scar on her mouth.

"Believe me, that was not the worst he can do. Besides, he wanted an ally, not a friend. There is a difference. To Naruto, all he needs is his brother and the whole world can turn it's back on him and he would still be fine. I think it's the same way with Menma, but not because he has a choice. Naruto is the sun and everybody else are just planets, caught in the pull of his massive gravity."

"Jupiter isn't."

"What was that?" Kakuzu asked.

Sakura's voice went dreamy and her eyes roved behind her eyelids as if she were reading something in the darkness of her mind. Her photographic memory bleed the scene into perfect clarity.

"Jupiter does not orbit the sun. With 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets in the solar system combined, it's big enough that the center of gravity between Jupiter and the sun doesn't actually reside inside the sun — rather, at a point in space just above the sun's surface." She opened her eyes once more and faced Kakuzu. "If he's the sun I'll be Jupiter."

He chuckled, taking her water glass and looking into it. "I don't think you would be anything so mundane. You'd be something outside of our reach, a distant star burning beyond the spill of our Milky Way, unassumingly small in the distance, but no less menacing once reached. Naruto's lucky you're giving up."

He set the water glass down on the table and braced his hands on his knees before standing.

"The others." She reached out for him, grabbing the fabric of his neatly pressed trousers and clinging."They don't know where this place is, do they? Are they safe?"

He paused, scarf slipping as he stared down at her, mouth slightly parted. She saw him swallow before answering. He didn't pull away. "They're safe, back at the barn. I sent them there."

"How?"

He almost moved closer to her, but she might have just imagined that. He was towering and tall as he loomed over the bed she lay in.

"I…" his breath interrupted his speech and she could hear how before he swallowed and tried again. "I am not so useless to not have my own set of tricks. You forget I am proficient in magical arts after having lived in this land for nearly seventy years."

Sakura's fingers slipped and fell away from the fabric as she chuckled. "You're an old geezer."

By his tone she could tell he took offence at that. "I age only outside of a binding. I'm not really that old."

"Old," Sakura sang, turning her face away, back into the pillows.

She started to melt into sleep and Kakuzu watched her all the way down until she was dozing with soft sounds on his pillows. He could smell her magic burning where she bled, knitting skin and tissue back like threads in silk. His sheets would smell like she slept in them for days. He wouldn't complain about that. He also probably wouldn't wash them until the smell faded.

He was almost too distracted to notice the sulfur in his living room and the burning of dimension shifting.

"I though it required too much magic to activate the space–time ninjutsu of your Sharingan," Kakuzu said as he shut the door behind him.

"You're one to speak. What did it take to activate those tags and sweep so many people off their feet to not one, but two different locations?" Madara leaned back, crossing his arms across his chest. "And you know I have plenty of chakra to burn."

"You'll run out before you know it, and she won't bail you out. She's not the type to make snap judgments under pressure, so she's not going to make you her familiar if you start to fade."

Madara made a mocking face. "Oh, you know her so well. Pervert stalker."

"My intentions are no less honorable than yours."

"Who said mine were honorable?" Madara asked.

"Naturally," Kakuzu sighed, sounding exhausted with the Uchiha. "That comes as no surprise, but this time I'll have to insist that you not pursue her. You're out of depth in this strange new world."

"And you're not?"

Kakuzu didn't hide any of his face as he glared openly at Madara. "Survive nearly a century on the marrow of a matriarch's magic and try saying that again. You're not suitable for this world the way you are now. You're reckless and believe you're the king again."

Madara leaned forward, his eyes widening as glowing red pinwheels bleed across his pupils, turning viciously like blades. They thrummed with magic older and heavier than the bones of the earth. "I think you've forgotten who I am or what I've done in the world we once shared. I am Madara Uchiha, a god of dreams and nightmares, destroyer of nations."

"That was another time and another world. You're not that person anymore, for better or worse. Others pulled out of the void didn't even remember the war at the end, and even I lost that recollection until my bond with Mito solidified a month after my initial summoning. The ones that came through before me didn't recall half as much with twice as much time."

"Others?"

Madara glared, lifting his chin as a sly smile stretched across Kakuzu's face, tugging at his stitches.

"Yes, there are others."

"You tell that to Sakura, or are you withholding that too until she consents to play mother to your self gratification fantasies?" Madara closed his eyes and the red in them faded but didn't disappear completely. "It doesn't sound like she's dying to talk with you again. Besides, she enjoys my company enough during those midnight hours."

Kakuzu simmered but kept the expression from reaching his face. Instead, he schooled his expression into the stone set used for court rooms and business meetings. He was a professional that knew how to deal with the disorderly and unkind.

"Mock all you like. You understand nothing." Kakuzu pointed to the seal still burning his carpet. "I'll send you back or you can return on your own, but you don't get to stay here."

"You're crazy if you think I'm leaving her here with you," Madara growled, staring up at the taller male through his bangs and long, Uchiha black lashes. "You're not going to move me."

"I'll insist."

There was knowing in his eyes as Madara directed the fulness of his intention to Kakuzu. There were things said between them without words. The barest hint of magic flavored with age singed the edges of their senses.

"I'd like to see you try. I'll make a scene and she'll wake up and she'll see what you're trying to do. You had that room made up for her like you were expecting her to move in with you. It's creepy enough, even for you."

"I'm trying to protect her from forces and influences you aren't even aware of yet. She's a Uzumaki by blood and that means it's dangerous for her to be unguarded right now. Her cousins were already recruited. If Kushina keeps weakening her coven, it'll collapse under the weight of all her discarded tools." For a moment Kakuzu was distracted as he thought about his words. "He'll go after her next, even though he already has a bone witch."

"Who will?" Madara snapped.

Kakuzu looked up and grinned. "No one you need concern yourself with. It's a matter of covens and you're only good for business among clans. If you don't want to leave on your own that's fine. I told Sakura she would be safe here and I was true to my word. Even though you could slip in here with a bit of space and time folding magic, that's nothing my dominion spells can't manage."

The word was odd to hear and Madara ruffled at the sound of it. "Dominion?"

"This is my dominion, this quaint little apartment room with a view overlooking the lake Sakura can wake up to. I've blessed and purified it a hundred times over before Mito died, and my magic is still thick in its walls." He lifted his hand and put his palm flat atop the surface. "Like here."

There was a thrum of energy and Madara felt the magic pull behind his navel in a sick way that was all too familiar. His red eyes flashed too slowly as the spell rooted in him and sent him hurling through the path he burned when he first warped through space and time.

Madara snarled as best he could against the pull, but when he blinked, he was back in the Barn, looking at a pair of irritated and confused faces. He didn't wait for them to ask before he grabbed the back of a chair and roared, throwing it at Gaara who caught it easily and held onto it, watching the Uchiha scream his curses.

"Next time we see him I'll gut the bastard."

"I take it Sakura's not coming back tonight," Konan sighed, staring behind her at the bed in disappointment. It was still messy and unmade.

Gaara huffed, setting the chair down. "I'm going to read in my loft. Call me when something exciting happens."

Madara screamed again, wasting flares of magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is something from tumblr that I thought would be beneficial to bring over. Someone on anon asked:  
> 'If familiars need a witch in order for them to survive aren't they just playin hopscotch basically? Hopping from witch to witch to stay alive? Don't they wana move on? Or are they trying to find someone that will have them an is immortal?'
> 
> My answer:So familiars are usually like summons in the Naruto world, animals or creatures you make contracts with to keep in the material world as a companion. Other variations allowed you to summon multiple animals from a family or race of creatures, those are the most common and accepted forms of witch-familiar contracts.
> 
> It gets messy when the people are human-or used to be at least, because that school of magic is strictly a form of necromancy (much frowned upon in the Witchy World). There are levels to the bond they establish with a witch which determine their fate after the witch's death.
> 
> Madara and the others were consumed by great power in the end and their bodies were destroyed, but because of the nature of the accident at the end of the world, their souls were tethered to that 'spell' or jutsu and unable to move on. They were little better than ghosts. This sort of event is really rare. When this happens it's little better than being damed because of how difficult it is to subvert the curse that killed them all in the first place. There are a few things a witch can do if s/he is able to pull these souls out of the items they were tethered to (original wood from the accident for Madara and company.)
> 
> 1\. Salutation  
> Sakura could initiate the most basic bonding contract and tie a silver thread of fate from her heart to theirs. It's what Mito did with Kakuzu and that required a living person as a sacrifice to form the body Kakuzu would use. This is a lot like the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation which binds the soul of a deceased person (Kakuzu) to a living vessel. Because they get a body out of this, they can survive after their witch dies, but not for long. That silver thread of fate is unrolling and once it's unrolled they're back in the curse again.
> 
> 2\. Communion  
> Sakura could initiate something called Communion, which is the next level up and a bit more sexy costly to the witch. In addition to needing a body sacrifice, they tie a gold string of fate to the summon that binds them to their witch, but upon death that bond isn't guaranteed to stick-it can still break and doesn't ensure them escaping the curse completely. They get a chance to pass on, or they could end up like Kakuzu, decaying slowly until they slip back into the curse.
> 
> 3\. Engagement  
> Sakura only knows vaguely about this one because it's so rare. (If you're willing to do an Engagement you can do a Matrimony.) Basically a platinum thread of fate ties the summon to the witch and binds them both in death-so they would die when their witch dies. They still need a body for this. The cost for this ceremony is high because it allows a witch to take on multiple familiars. Death is possible for the caster at this ritual level. If the familiar dies after this bond is forged, they pass on. They are officially free from the curse.
> 
> 4\. Matrimony  
> It can only be done between one witch and a summon at a time and when one dies so does the other. It does require a body sacrifice, but it ties a red string of fate between the two and it's not so dangerous to the witch. This is a highly emotional bond though, so it doesn't always work between any witch and any summon, but if both parties are willing it should work. The summon is more powerful at this stage than any other. Also, if either dies, so doe the other.
> 
> Sakura doesn't know about the last two very well, but that's the basic leveling of how to deal with summons if you don't have a contract for them.
> 
> Now yeah, if all they could get are basic silver bonds, familiars will witch-bounce to stay alive, but what they're really craving is something more. Red threads are a magical high most could only dream about, but most would be happy with a gold thread that gives them the chance to break free at the end and pass on. No one wants to go back to being a ghost. They all want to eventually move on, but some (coughMadaracough) would like more while they are in the living world.


	9. Shopping

The Barn

* * *

Shopping

* * *

It wasn't morning when Sakura awoke next, but hours later when the sky was dark and burning with the promise of a not too far off sunrise. She could feel her magic spent and shallow, but the cuts were all but faded across her body.

She stood and looked herself over in the mirror, hesitant to touch the gauze bandage taped over her face and lip. She pulled back half the tape first and lifted the gauze. There was no cut, but a trail of piner skin still showed off even in the dim of the room what had once been there. She grinned like a bulldog, if only she bit as hard as one.

"It's been years since I wanted to hurt someone," she mused out loud, speaking to her own reflection like it had an opinion to offer back. "Just like it's been years since I've touched my magic. What a coincidence."

She channeled magic into her bones around her hand and let it glow green before hovering it over the pink scar. Bit by bit, she worked the skin back into a healthy color that bore no resemblance to the damage it once glared. Healing had become easier in her old age like they said it would. The older you grew the easier things were to control and manipulate, but the less vigor you had over magic. That was the trade off.

_'But a bone witch will hold her magic longer than the others. You won't have to worry about controlling or manipulating magic when you're your mother's age. You'll be able to outlast them all.'_

She let the magic stay in her hand, softly burning in her bones with no real goal or purpose other than to exist and be felt. It was warm with life to the touch, and languid in its unformed state. If she closed her eyes she could almost smell it, but the exact nature of the scent escaped her. It was easier to notice other's scents, but she could never pin down her own.

Sakura was starting to admit to herself that magic was like a bad habit or a warm bed, easy to climb inside of and harder to slip away from.

Why had she given up magic in the first place?

Sakura indulged and it felt like sinning when she channeled what was left of her magic through her body and built up the fibers of her muscles, the tissues and sinews, the knit of her skin and construct of her form to its prime with healing magic. Her bones burned and sang, seeping warm magic through her until it felt like she had run marathons daily for decades. It was a high that sent her brain reeling with glee.

She felt like she had to keep using her magic until it was spent. What else could she do?

She lifted her left hand to try something else and suddenly the magic rubbed raw there. She felt the rough texture like sandpaper under her magic and had to recoil. Her high came crashing down as the shock traveled up her arm and she stumbled backwards, hitting the edge of the bed with her hip and sliding down. She gripped her throbbing wrist and held it tight with her good hand, watching as her knuckles turned white and the skin turned red.

_'Remember what you did, remember what you lost!'_

The message was clear as fate and it was enough to bring her back. Sakura screwed her eyes shut and braced with her toes curling into the carpet for purchase. She felt the deep places of her settle and thanked God she hadn't gone too far and touched the black magic underneath it all.

They spoke of hitting your limit like crashing to the ground after flying, suddenly having nowhere to go. That was true for everyone else, but not for Sakura. She brought her grave digging shovel and she was ready to dig when she got to that others got to the end of their magic they stopped or were stopped, but those conventions held her like wet paper and she knew there was something more than just her limits to explore. There was more to unearth in the moist soil of her magic, and She did so because she knew there was something worth finding there.

She looked up to the mirror and swallowed, searching for any of the telling signs, but her skin was unmarred and just as pale and plain as expected. There were no patches of black blotting like ink drops anywhere, and her eyes were wide and scared, but still hers. There was no voice either.

"Stupid," Sakura said out loud to herself.

She felt like an idiot. It had only been for a minute, but for that small moment in time she had forgotten what she swore she would never forget. So many years ago she had paid for her greed with the dexterity of her left hand and the peace of mind that came with knowing your magic wasn't sentient and malicious.

Back then Sakura just wanted to be the best witch she could be.

Now all she wanted to be was sane.

She dressed, threw out the old bandages, and left with a folded note on the bed for Kakuzu to find when he woke. The walk back to the barn was mundane and long, by the time she made it her feet were sore and the sun was well risen, but her head was a little neater. When she opened the door and saw the breakfast cooking she was able smile and joke.

Everything was back to being mostly fine.

"I hope you saved some for me."

* * *

The paper crinkled. "Shopping?" Madara echoed, already frowning at the idea of it. "Please no, I don't want to go out today."

"You don't have to. I can find stuff for you if you want to stay behind, but I think it would be good to do something a little more mundane and normal. It's been a little too crazy for me lately and I need to get some of you caught up with the times more than others."

"I thought you could just magic our clothes," Gaara said with a wiggle of his fingers to help illustrate his words. "You don't need to spend your money on us."

Sakura grinned and held up a black matted credit card. "It's not my money. The Uzumaki coven will be covering this bill. Kakuzu had one of their cards and I helped myself. I'm thinking of it as payback for their overzealous monitoring."

"Is that the real reason you want to go out?" Gaara guessed.

"Oh please," Konan interrupted. "There are reasons other than revenge to go out and spend someone else's money."

"Like?" Gaara asked.

"Shoes!" Sakura interjected quickly, because it was the first basic, normal thing that came into her head that had nothing to do with magic or demons or black marks that spread like a plague.

Konan looked backwards over her shoulder at Sakura before facing Gaara again and nodding. "Yeah, pretty things. Besides that, it would be good reconnaissance for us. If we want to blend in here we should study the people and the culture. Madara, you're the only one with clearance to actually pick up a job here, you need to come with us."

Madara glared. "I don't want a job. It would leave the Barn unguarded."

"What are we?" Konan exclaimed, looking offended.

"Inferior," he replied without missing a beat.

"I'll go with you if there are star drinks," Gaara whispered to Sakura, watching Madara and Konan get into another argument.

"Sure, let me get my things and we can go."

Sakura punched in her code for the day and reached for her purse left by the kitchen counter. It was there she noticed the vase of flowers. Pretty yellow and orange foxglove stalks were clustered together. Sakura reached for one, more red than orange, and pulled it free from the waters.

Behind her someone called her name and Sakura blinked, replacing the stalk in the vase and turning away. She didn't bother asking who left the foxglove in her kitchen, she had seen the same flowers in Kakuzue's home and remembered it was the Uzumaki's coven flower, appearing on their family crest along with the grinning fox leaping over a human skull that sat atop a pair of crossed arrows.

In addition to just being a favorite flower, they were also convenient conduits of magic for people who weren't bone witches.

Sakura jingled her keys. "I'm ready to leave. Anyone who wants to tag along can come, otherwise I'll lock the door behind me and expect to be let back in when we come back." She leveled her eyes on Madara. "Okay?"

Madara lowered his chin but stood up from where he had been leaning so he was taller than her again. His arms were still crossed, but he wasn't turned away from her at least.

Sakura didn't wait for his answer, but headed for the car and hoped he followed. Konan took the passenger's front seat and Gaara slipped in the back. Sakura didn't hear anything else but when she looked in the rearview mirror Madara was there, just as dour with his arms still crossed.

Sakura drove them somewhere a little out of the city, where the shops were older and less unkept. The trees arched over the roadways and shed leaves of gold and crimson all the way down. Sakura glanced off to the side and saw the rows of brick front homes converted into shop fronts and turned away in the opposite direction.

Not far from the foliage was a tucked away strip mall old enough to have affordable prices and new enough to still sell overpriced confectionary drinks. Sakura parked and looked back to see Madara was gone again, leaving her alone with Gaara and Konan.

"Well, he's not getting star drinks," Gaara huffed, less bothered by Madara's disappearing act than Sakura.

Two hours later Sakura had spent three grand on clothes, shoes, and useless accessories, but felt the need to use her own money to pay for Gaara's drink in the mall.

Konan sat down on the bench alongside Sakura, dropping the bags to settle beside them on the floor. She sounded tired but Sakura knew she wasn't, since Konan had the most energy when it came to buying new things, a trait Sakura admired and found relatable.

"When I was younger, much younger, the family would have these champion games for fun, but really it was just the young kids showing off their magic. If you won you got something nice, some years it was a diamond tennis bracelet, a fine bottle of merlot, a champion thoroughbred for your stables, or a day trip to the mall with one of these little black cards."

"What sort of games were they?" Konan asked, recognizing the note of nostalgia in Sakura's voice.

"Games that ended with blood, mostly. There were puzzles sometimes, but Naruto was so stupid Kushina tried to shy away from those. When Mito was still alive she didn't play favorites like that and kept the courses traditional. The Wheel, The Courage, The Star, The Hanged Man, all different games. Find your way through the maze, untangle the illusion from reality before the real threat gets to you, track the monster before it is free on the world to kill, dig down to the end of your magic and then go further." Sakura shrugged in a way that was practiced. "Games like those."

"Did you ever win any games?"

"The Hermit, actually. It was a fancy masked party, a masquerade, and by the end of the night someone close to us would be dead if the hermit wasn't discovered or unmasked. Who didn't fit in this party, use your magic to find out."

"How did you discover it?"

Sakura's grin was wry. "He was the only one there less at ease than me. It wasn't a good example and Kushina had a little fit because I never used my magic, but Mito said…it was more than just how much magic or what spells you knew, but the character of a person in a lion's den, or something like that. I didn't understand it at the time, but I was just glad I had beat Karin who was a sensor and the obvious favorite. She won the most."

"It sounds like becoming a witch suited you. Why did you give it up? Finances would have been supplied by the family, I assume, so that's not the reason," Konan mused, looking over at Sakura with eyes too keen to swallow deception.

Sakura smiled, but her lips were dry and her throat was close to cotton.

"You know the last game I was a part of was The Wheel. There was this huge roulette table we had to find and spin. Depending on what it landed on we ended up fighting or facing a challenge. Naruto ended up fighting a low powered clone of himself, Karin was stuck unraveling an illusion, Tayuya was stuck in a room with walls closing in a little bit every few seconds, and I….I rolled a Black Knight."

"What does that mean?"

"It was a construct made from magic, or it was supposed to be, but there was something more to it and it was unlike anything mechanical when I stripped it down there was just teeth and eyes and darkness that swallowed all my magic until it devoured me. It was an undying thing."

Sakura closed her eyes to the memory.

_She hit the ground, the end, the limits of her magic. She had spent it all and she was at rock bottom. That's when she picked of her grave shovel and started to dig until her skin was the color of topsoil and her teeth were just as long as her nightmares._

"Kushina's attempt to kill me went very differently. Remember, Menma?"

Sakura opened her eyes and saw the dark haired twin scowling down at her. Sakura's smile was a lazy stretch of her lips as Konan tensed alongside her. Gaara put a hand on Sakura's shoulder, making his presence known to her.

"Naruto won that fight fair and square. It was just an unlucky spin," Menma grumbled in a voice like gravel.

"Sure it was," Sakura cooed, eyes creased and playful. "And it all turned out okay in the end, didn't it? What else are you doing in my neck of the woods, cousin?"

"We thought you were Karin. She's the only one who spends this much."

"You could just call her," Sakura flippantly replied, knowing full well how Karin had defected from the family coven two days ago. She also knew she wasn't supposed to know about how Karin had left the family in such an ugly way. It was embarrassing to admit, probably.

"Funny thing about women and cellphones, they don't like to use them when they're angry with you."

"Karin's angry with you? I thought she was fond of you boys." Sakura teased. A part of her in the back of her brain was commending her for being so brave while another part was cursing her for being so stupid. Menma could tear her open if he wanted to.

But he wouldn't.

"Women get angry without reason all the time, regardless of how fond they may be of a person or thing," he huffed.

"That sounds like something someone who wasn't able to get a girlfriend would say. I know mama bear was the sheltering type, but I didn't think she was so bad. You know it's illegal to date your cousins so what are you doing tracking down Karin on your own?"

Sakura saw his face fill with color. "It's not like that, why you have to make everything a joke?"

"Why do you have to be so funny?"

"You have a problem with that mouth of yours."

Sakura wants to respond on that snap instinct of hers that would have made a witty comeback about that not being what his mom said last night, or something in that vein of rhetoric, but she held herself back in time. Menma was touchy when it came to his mother and she felt that she might push him a little too much if she said something like that.

Naruto was mother's favorite, not him.

Sakura leaned forward, resting the back of her fist under her chin. "You have a problem with my mouth? Cute. I haven't heard that one before. You gonna say something original or do I have to listen to the same lines as your brother?"

She blew him a playful kiss that kept his face red.

"Shut up. I was just here because I thought you might be Karin. It's not like the rest of the family cares that much about what happens to her next. At least I tried. At least I-"

His words cut off when Sakura thrust forward a single finger to touch his lips and stop him. Behind her Gaara was also tense. The area around them was silent, devoid of humans. Even the people inside the shops seemed gone or out of sight. Suddenly it was too quiet for a mall.

"Sakura," Konan whispered, touching the younger girl in warning.

"No, I feel it too. Where did Madara run off to?"

"It's not him," Gaara said.

Sakura pulled back her finger and stood, facing the direction of the magic that had begun to trickle from. It was familiar and intentional and teasing all at once, making it hard for Sakura to breath.

"Karin?"

Menma exclaimed as the redhead rounded the corner and came into view, looking stunning as always in thin black stilettos and a long mink fur coat. There might have been a little shadow under her eyes, but her makeup was flawless and a perfect mask to the world of her true exhaustions.

Karin smiled and waved to the pair of them with just her fingers. "I heard you were looking for me, Menma. Sorry Sakura dearest, I didn't mean for you to become a part of this. Before we have our girl talk let me take care of the pest, okay?"

It was an interesting idea, because on their own, Menma and Karin were almost evenly matched, with Karin showing more skill and talent in the end. If Sakura stepped back she didn't doubt Karin would win. That wasn't a bad things…but….

Sakura turned and looked behind them where two new figures stood, one she recognized, one she didn't. Tayuya smiled and waved from beside the boy taller and paler than her. Sakura felt instantly unsettled by the sight of him.

"Who are your friends?" Sakura asked.

Menma looked behind him and cursed too, seeing the new faces for the first time. It looked more and more like a trap for him. He wouldn't be able to beat Karin on his own, especially not if Karin had backup.

"Well, some of them are busy looking for that last friend of yours, tricky bastard, but the ones you see here are your cousin Tayuya and Kimimaro. Say hello and be polite, won't you dolls?" Karin cooed with a wave of her hand. Her nails were painted a bright red to match her lips and hair. She looked better than she had last they saw each other.

"This is a public place, let's be civil about it, alright?" Sakura cautioned, raising both her palms and grinning over at Tayuya and the other man. "Right?"

"You're not as uninvolved as you would like to be," Menma growled sidelong at Sakura. "You think they'll leave you alone? They'll try to take you like he did with your other cousins. Stupid girls."

"Not very nice, Menma."

Karin pointed a finger and Sakura heard the magic hit and latch onto his body. Menma choked as the blood inside him began to heat. His eyes bulged and he reached for his own magic to break the hold before his veins boiled.

He snarled and the marks on his face grew darker. Gaara reached for Sakura to tug her back and away, Konan rising to flank her as they turned together to run. In the way Tayuya and the other man stood, blocking their path.

"You're outnumbered," Sakura tried.

"Those two can't use their magic freely unless they want to run out faster. You gonna force them into that?" Tayuya asked, grin mocking. She pulled out her flute and turned it over once before taping it to her lips. "Just come quietly with us while Karin deals with the brat. Our Patriarch has something he would like to talk to you about."

"I can guess the rest," said Sakura. "Is it one of those, join me or die sort of deals? Someone mentioned a coven rising up to take down our family. What he say to get you to join?"

"Nothing extraordinary. I was ready with just the thought of revenge." Her eyes sparkled. "You ready to go?"

Konan reached in front of Sakura and her skin started to peel into paper. Sakura grabbed the older woman to stop her, knowing that Konan and the others only had a limited amount of magic before they ran out and were sent back into the screaming void she had first pulled them out of.

"Let me do this much. I can't just watch," Konan hissed, looking more pissed than Sakura thought she had ever seen the woman. "They threaten you right in front of me. I can't allow that."

"It's just smack talk. It's not your problem-"

"It is if it has to deal with you!" Konan interrupted. "I won't sit back and watch this again. Don't ask me to endure such a thing."

"I as well," said Gaara, hand back on her shoulder. "It's not fair that you take care of us all the time without asking for anything in return. Plus, I don't want to see you bleed again."

Tayuya smirked at the sight of them. "Fine, let's beat her down a little before talks and cake, yeah?"

The other girl laughed before rising her flute and blowing. The man moved at the first note and Gaara rushed forward to combat the physical strike while Konan unfolded into a thousand papers, thickening to absorb the blast of sound.

But then, too fast to know how it happened, Menma was thrown through the air, landing on the other side of the mall clearing where they all could see the state of his body, bound in gold chains. Sakura turned and Karin was there. She smiled playfully and then just pointed to where Gaara was fighting, making no move to do anything further.

Sakura turned and felt her heart sink. Gaara was doing his best with the little breakdown of sand he had transmuted from cloth or chair or bench, but the man named Kimimaro was too fast with a sword as pale as bone and smelling just like one.

'"You're not the only bone witch out there, cous."

Sakura started to fly through hand seals, forgetting that she didn't need them anymore. "Abort mission now!"

"But Madara-"

"He'll be fine on his own!"

Sakura pulled a bone from her wrist, still slick with fluids and threw it between Gaara and the other bone witch male, knowing it wouldn't hit but hoping it would be intercepted. She was finished with her own seals, she just needed to get in contact with both Gaara and Konan again.

Kimimaro caught the bone and stopped, rising out of his stance to hold it in one hand and eye it critically.

Sakura used that moment to grab Konan, or what was left of her paper body, and then turn for Gaara. He was close, but she dragged Konan with her to touch him because that was important, they had to be connected otherwise it didn't work.

She grabbed Gaara and felt bone between her ribs, ripping through her shirt from an outside source. It was pain, but she grit through it and pulsed magic into the seal that would take them all back to the place in the middle of her living room where such a seal had been painted right after the incident at the festival.

She saw sticking out of her side, her same bone, thrown back at her. The boy was glaring at her and it was a glare that promised another encounter-one she wouldn't be able to run away from.


	10. 2nd Heart

The Barn

* * *

 

Second Heart

* * *

"It's not really convenient," Sakura grumbled, warding the edges of the house with yarrow for a third time to triple the binding protections. "They couldn't have waited a week for Fall break before starting an all out coven war? I have a life they're disrupting."

Gaara watched her work, eyeing the red stain on her shirt with worry while Konan sat with fingers steepled in front of her lips, eyes closed.

"Are you sure that's fine to leave like that?" Gaara asked in a worried voice.

Sakura stopped and dropped the spent yarrow branch. She looked down at the red stain and pulled the shirt up to show pink skin, shiny and scarred. It would heal better in a day or two, but it wasn't life threatening. The bone knife hadn't gone in deep in the first place.

"I'm fine. Bone witches heal well on their own I'm told, which is one of the reasons I was so frantic about getting you out of there. That kid wasn't going to stop. I mean, I'm a bone witch but I don't know how to do much of anything anymore." When Gaara still looked at her with worry in his eyes Sakura hurried to add, "Aside from that, Uzumaki are annoyingly fast healers too."

"Have you made any efforts to locate Madara?" Konan asked from behind her fingers.

"Not since we've been back. I couldn't sense him at the mall either, after he slipped away. I did get a text from Kakuzu so I think he's okay. Once I'm finished here I'll scry for him."

"I'm not worried about him," Gaara huffed.

"I'm not worried about him either, I want to read him the riot act once we find him. He was useless and Sakura was hurt! If he's going to insist on tagging along he can be a little less worthless." Konan's tone was harsh.

There was a vibration in her back pocket, causing Sakura to reach for her phone. It was a text from Kakuzu answering the question she sent him minutes earlier.

"He's with Kakuzu, but I don't think it's Kakuzu texting me…I think it's Madara. Shit, one crisis at a time, guys."

Sakura flipped to the caller id and clicked on the phone icon to call Kakuzu. She had transported the group of them and left her car behind so she didn't know how useful she would be until she got that back.

It rang once, twice, and then was denied. Sakura pulled the phone away from her face to glare at it before redialing, more intent on getting through. If it was Madara on the other end he probably didn't even know how to accept a call on a smartphone. Had he seen her make calls before?

When the phone rang on and on and on Sakura started to feel the seeds of worry bloom in her gut. She had just finished warding the home, but something told her that it was all wasted work because she needed to be where those two were. Where was that?

Sakura turned to face Konan and Gaara. "Decision time! Do you want to stay here or you want to come with me to visit those two?"

The pair stood at the same time, wordlessly voting. Neither looked ready to separate from her side so soon.

"'Kay, I'm taking a few things and I'm not sure if I even know where they are, but I'll try his apartment first, since that's a safe place for him to hunker down in."

Sakura growled to herself about not having a car before heading out for the attached shed she had only peered inside once or twice since inheriting the Barn. The door swung noisily out and dropped dust on her head but the mess inside was not as horrific as she remembered it being. The black and brown 1975 Honda 550 four motorcycle was right where she remembered leaving it.

The leather of the seat was cracked and the tank was empty, but there was gas in a can off to the side Sakura used. It smelled like ages long gone by, but the engine revved to life with a twist and no second attempts. It was ready to go if she was ready to ride.

She packed away some things she thought she might need as well as some things she hoped she didn't into the saddlebags on either side before tugging down a denim jacket and then another leather one to offer up to Gaara who was waiting with a paper flower in his hands.

"For the record, I have to convey Konan's dissatisfaction with the set up, because she wanted to ride behind you, but without my sand I'm not able to travel compartment style. Konan was a stealth agent back in the other time," Gaara said, passing over the flower to Sakura.

She tucked it behind her ear and made sure it wasn't crushed under the helmet. She felt Konan fold out around her skull, encircling her head under the helmet. There was heat there, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

"Hopefully I'll get my car back soon and I won't have to do this again. If I need to I can just drive this bike there and then pack it up in the backseat and….pray it all comes back in one piece. Or I can just…no I don't have a seal there for that so I…I can just…"

Sakura started to talk to herself as she folded a white cotton cloth over itself and then stuffed it deep into the saddlebag before clipping it all shut. Her hands were shaking but she hid that by grabbing the handles with extra force and pressing her body as close to the frame as possible.

Gaara slid on behind her and pressed himself close to her. She could feel his arms around her waist and knew he was secured there. There was no wavering in his hold. She shouldn't waver with her own resolve so she revved and pretended her heart wasn't hammering and angry.

There was a silvery trail in the air when she focused on the key he had given her and she knew it was left for her to find her way back to him. She followed Kakuzu's trail and ended up at the apartments by the waters.

He had done well enough as a lawyer to afford such private and high end property even if it was only an apartment. When she parked she listened and heard very little sound. Glancing about she saw the complex was mostly empty. That either meant it was a very private community or she was walking into a trap.

"It's so empty. I can't hear anyone or sense them nearby," Gaara said. He dismounted behind her and stayed close.

Sakura knew the way even without the magic aiding her and it was a relief to let it go and pretend she wasn't made out of magic for a little while. It was getting harder and harder to not slip into the ease that magic offered her. Magic was like a bad habit or a warm bed.

The door needed the key but opened easily enough, even with all the other wards and traps set up. None of them triggered when she crossed the threshold. Still, she was caught at the edge of the hallway looking into the living room. She heard Gaara suck in a breath and Konan came unfurled in a wind that moved to stand protectively in front of Sakura, least she dare forward.

"What the hell happened here?" Sakura hissed, glaring at the sight and nothing exactly. It was too hard for eyes to focus on something.

Madara was a mess of torn clothes, fading scratches, disheveled hair and a bleeding lip. There were shadows under his eyes and he looked weaker than he ever had. Between him and Kakuzu the furniture was a mess, but nothing was worse than the apartment owner himself.

For as bad as Madara looked, Kakuzu was ten times worse. More than a bleeding lip the skin around his lips looked dead under his stitches. Parts of him looked to be sagging off and falling apart. He was a patchwork of skin colors, none of them smelled like a rotting corpse too.

"He was tailing you," Madara huffed. He pulled himself up and wavered from one foot to the other. "I tried-I followed him back here."

"To do what, kill him?" Sakura demanded.

She had little love for Kakuzu but it was hurting to look at him. Physically, she was repulsed and felt pain in places when she saw how worn and broken he was. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"He was following you!"

A sound came out of Kakuzu that sounded like words, but it was too muffled and caught up in a bubble shape that made her think of drowning in a mouth full of blood. She sucked in a breath when she saw the pool of red overflow his teeth and splatter across the floor. She understood what he was trying to say but couldn't tell him that as she watched him fall apart.

Wasn't safe

"We were attacked at the mall and instead of being beside us you were taking care of a personal beef," Konan interjected, stepping forward with eyes like blue fire that wanted to burn Madara alive. "You were useless to us here."

"What did you do to him?" Gaara asked in a soft voice.

Sakura swallowed, watching Kakuzu try to tugg a part of his face back up by pulling on the heavy black stitching that stood out all the darker now that he was so close to disappearing. She could feel it, how empty and broken he was. There was barely any magic left in him. He was on the edge of dissolving and falling back into that screaming void world they had all been pulled from. The body Minto had summoned for him was little good after so long. She was dead and there was nothing to sustain it. It was amazing how long he had lasted, actually.

Madara took a step towards Sakura, looking her over with wide eyes that searched for injuries, but she had already healed. Still, her shirt was stained with old blood and it was all Madara could seem to see. He took another step towards him but Konan stood in his way.

"Don't you touch her," she snarled.

Madara flinched and then glared back. His lip curled like he wanted to follow up with some aggressive act. There was a moment when Sakura wasn't sure if he would or not. Then, he rocked back on his heels and stepped back.

"I'm fine," Sakura sighed, feeling stupid for having to say it when Kakuzu was falling apart. There were black threads snapped and spilled all over the room. She could guess what had happened based on the mess between both men.

"We can go back now then," Madara said. "Leave him."

"Like hell I'll go back with him like that," Konan snapped. She looked back over her shoulder at Sakura and Gaara, but only Sakura seemed to actually care. "We can't let that happen, right?"

"What are you saying?" Madara snapped. "You wanna keep him in this world? I thought there was no love lost between you and the others."

"I remember that world better than you do. I also have more of a heart than you do. I don't have to be a monster anymore, so I'll care."

"Not like there is anything anyone could do though," Gaara said, watching Kakuzu with disinterest. "We have no body and Sakura doesn't know such a complex ritual."

"But he's going to disappear soon!" cried Konan. She looked to Sakura. "If we could get you a body could you…do something? Maybe not make him your familiar but…something?"

Wordlessly, Sakura turned and left. She went back to the motorcycle and unclasped the saddlebag. She heard Gaara following her but didn't say anything until they were back in the apartment room.

"Clean the room. Get rid of the debris," she instructed. She set the saddlebag down and dumped everything inside it out. The inkwell rolled across the table but Sakura stopped it with a single finger. "I need space."

* * *

"Why are the things you're not supposed to know the things you want to know the most? I thought I was supposed to be the troublemaker. I don't want to get grounded for something so boring."

Sakura rolled her eyes at her younger cousin and vaulted easily over the low wall in the garden that buffered the side of the house that was next to the library.

"Just shut up and keep watch while I slip in. I can only do this without being noticed or see today. I took care of the magic, but you still need to help me with the human eye part of it. Whistle when you hear or see someone coming. I can't be seen."

Tayuya huffed loudly, but stayed where Skuara pointed and watched the area silently, a dog whistle dangling idly from her lips.

Mito left her library unwarded so rarely it was an opportunity Sakura couldn't pass up, even if she didn't need anything from the ancient tomes at the time. A month ago when the old woman's health had taken a nose dive most of her wards broke or went so weak they were easy to slip through. In that moment Sakura had taken several books from the restricted section and hidden them in the common shelves to retrieve at a later date.

Mito was sick again and no one watching the library again.

Sakura was a cat in her stealth to the darker corner where the dust would have made anyone else sneeze. She just barely muffled herself before sounding anything.

Heresies of the Kaguya Disciples slid off the shelf easily, and opened just as easily, as if begging to be read. With wide eyes that memorized everything, Sakura devoured the text.

What else were the words of heretics for?

* * *

Sakura remembered the pages and saw them when she closed her eyes. The seal came back to mind as clearly as if she were staring at it in the present.

She spilled her ink onto the end of a brush and painted the floor with black. It was important that the lines be drawn using a dead medium, and while chalk was a favorite of hers, the ink in her well had once been blood now mixed into a custom solution that the old heretics would swear by.

Sakura painted with her left hand and pretended it wasn't damaged. Channeling magic into her bones kept the fingers from shaking the brush. When she was done, she almost felt a sort of pride for how pretty the floor was stained. It was lit another piece of art.

Gaara called out to her and she looked up. He was holding her clothes and looking worried. "What is that seal from?"

"A long time ago, older than even you," Sakura answered.

She held her hand to her chest to keep the light cotton dress from wrinkling as she moved. She didn't wear anything else because she knew it would just be torn apart by the time she was done. She didn't want to loose anything she liked wearing.

"It looks like a Fūinjutsu." hearing Konan cough behind him Gaara added, "That's a sealing technique we used to use."

"I guess you could use such a word for an instance like this one. Yes, this is a sealing technique," she admitted, looking down at her fingers still stained at the tips in black.

Gaara didn't say anything more but he dropped his eyes. Behind him Madara sat on the top of the counter with his legs crossed and his face turned away. He had sulked off to the kitchen and refused to look at her for the entirety of her painting. He treated her like a traitor but Sakura wasn't in the mood to care.

"You're going to make Kakuzu your familiar, then?" asked Konan.

Sakura shut her eyes and felt for her magic, knowing there was less than a full well inside her. "I'm hoping it won't be like Mito's. I'm not sacrificing a human for this, after all."

"Then it won't work," Madara muttered into his hand. "Should give up now."

Sakura ignored him and stood at the base of the seal. She had scattered the mediums at the far points of the seal and made herself the last piece in the puzzle. At the end of it all was Kakuzu, still heaving breaths and sweating what seemed like his last worries away as more blood and stitching leaked out of him.

"Here in this place, let us partake in the communion of the body, joined by bone and flesh," Sakura intoned before pushing her magic into the seal. It was like pouring water into the grooves of a design and soon she was everywhere at once.

Her magic went to the far points, making the animal skull lift and shake, the powder dance into a miniature cyclone, the crystallized dragonfly hover, and the etched runes rattle against each other as they spelled out her heart's desire. A husk of a beehive began to hum and a bee made from her magic flew forth. It was fat and long, trailing a glittering thread the shade of honey from its body. It flew around Kakuzu and then plunged into his body with a dart, trailing the honey colored thread behind him until it was gone and there was no sign of either.

A moment later the bee emerged and made a straight line for Sakura. She didn't flinch as it sunk into her chest, trailing the gold thread of fate.

_Bone and flesh_

The room seemed to echo with the spell as Sakura felt the weight of her efforts start to sink her. She had successfully chosen her familiar and been sewn to him, now it was time to pay for him.

Sakura crossed her arms under her chest and felt where her rib cage ended with floating bones. She bent back and braced before pulling. Her body ripped open and slowly, bit by bit, she ripped a new skeleton from her body. Inch by inch, she raced to replace the bone with new. She wove for herself a new body from the inside out. She grew the bones, elongated them, and changed the shape in places to accommodate his sex and height.

She could feel the sweat trickle down her back and feel it in her lungs as the magic burning in her made her see spots of black across her vision. She was spending so much for every second and square inch of bone she grew. Her dress was ripped from the places she had pulled bone through and she knew there was enough blood to keep her modest as she stood in scraps and nothing else.

The last of Sakura came out with a cry that was more from relief than pain. She staggered, nearly without balance as a new skeleton hovered in the center of the seal, waiting to be used.

Bone and flesh…

She had paid for the bones well enough, but there was more a body needed in a sacrifice than just bone.

One leg nearly gave out and Sakura staggered. She could feel the end of her magic. She was close to the emptiness that would dye her black and erase what dignity she thought she still had left. If this next part didn't work, she risked more than just Kakuzu with this ritual.

She heard the runes clatter and inhaled sharply. She dug into the soft soil at the bottom of her well and felt the ink of her deepest magic leak up to the surface. Her skin took on a black tint in places.

'I will not let this own me!' Sakura screamed in her brain, opening her eyes and channeling the magic appropriately. Her ribs broke through her chest once more, bending unnaturally outward and exposing her insides to air. She was growing blacker in patches as a mocking laughter bloomed in the back of her brain, but Sakura only hurried faster.

Bone and flesh…

She felt her heart and held it in her hand. She move and felt the second heart, weak and feeble, it rarely ever pumped anymore. Her second heart; it was a mutation bone witches were known to have to help compensate for their rapid bone growth. The more bones they grew the stronger the second heart was and the faster their healing factor was.

Once upon a time Sakura remembered the sound of twin heartbeats in her lungs almost as well as the feel of a bone sword in both hands. That had been many years ago though and the heart now in her hand was warm and thin.

"You have to work for me because I can't put you in his body like this," Sakura said out loud.

She moved back to the first heart and pulled it out.

Black spread faster as her body went into shock, trying to compensate for the loss with more magic that pumped and cycled in place of her removed heart. Sakura snarled at the feeling and stumbled forward, pushing more of her magic into the removed heart before sticking it into the skeleton.

She dropped to her knees, feeling like a crazed animal caught in a trap and dying as she felt her magic spend heavily on both fronts. She was burning magic to stay alive while also feeding magic into her first heart so that it would grow the rest of the new body's flesh, as the spell simplified.

Sakura screamed, feeling her vision flicker off as darkness swallowed her sight. She was still alive and still breathing, but her heart was gone and her chest was still open. She pushed her bones back in place and healed in the places she hadn't been whole, feeling herself sink deeper into the gunky layers of her magic, where everything spent was a risk.

She heard too many things, but she knew she heard some exclamations about what the others were seeing. She just couldn't see.

Sakura spread her arms out, looking more like she was bracing for something than gesturing, but magic flowed just as well both ways. "Here in this place, let us partake in the communion of the body, joined by bone and flesh," she called, nearly screaming as the pain bit at her.

"Here in this place, let us partake in the communion of the body, joined by bone and flesh!" she screamed. "Be it paid by bone and by flesh, let it end as thus our engagement is sealed."

The golden thread tying Sakura to Kakuzu went taut and shimmered with a white light as if touched by moonlight. She was able to gain enough of her vision to crack open and eye and see what had become of their shared thread of fate. It glittered up at her like a platinum jewel, neither silver or gold enterally.

Sakura's secondary heart beat on it's own and Sakura coughed up blood, feeling her magic drop away and the world flicker once more. She fell backwards onto her spine. The last thing she saw was a shadowed hand reaching for her face. She remembered the passage from the text in Mito's library.

_Death is possible for the caster at this ritual level. If the familiar dies after this bond is forged, they pass on. They are officially free from the curse. Beware, the price is steep._

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A brush up on the different ritual levels for summoning a familiar:
> 
> 1\. Salutation  
> Sakura could initiate the most basic bonding contract and tie a silver thread of fate from her heart to theirs. It's what Mito did with Kakuzu and that required a living person as a sacrifice to form the body Kakuzu would use. This is a lot like the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation which binds the soul of a deceased person (Kakuzu) to a living vessel. Because they get a body out of this, they can survive after their witch dies, but not for long. That silver thread of fate is unrolling and once it's unrolled they're back in the curse again.
> 
> 2\. Communion  
> Sakura could initiate something called Communion, which is the next level up and a bit more costly to the witch. In addition to needing a body sacrifice, they tie a gold string of fate to the summon that binds them to their witch, but upon death that bond isn't guaranteed to stick-it can still break and doesn't ensure them escaping the curse completely. They get a chance to pass on, or they could end up like Kakuzu did the first time, decaying slowly until they slip back into the curse. That all depends on their emotional bond with their witch.
> 
> 3\. Engagement  
> Sakura only knows vaguely about this one because it's so rare. (If you're willing to do an Engagement you can do a Matrimony.) Basically a platinum thread of fate ties the summon to the witch and binds them both in death-so they would die when their witch dies. They still need a body for this. The cost for this ceremony is high because it allows a witch to take on multiple familiars. Death is possible for the caster at this ritual level. If the familiar dies after this bond is forged, they pass on. They are officially free from the curse.
> 
> 4\. Matrimony  
> It can only be done between one witch and a summon at a time and when one dies so does the other. It does require a body sacrifice, but it ties a red string of fate between the two and it's not so dangerous to the witch. This is a highly emotional bond though, so it doesn't always work between any witch and any summon, but if both parties are willing it should work. The summon is more powerful at this stage than any other. Also, if either dies, so does the other.


	11. Invitations to Dinner

The Barn

* * *

 

Invitations to Dinner

* * *

"He's here to see you again."

Sakura looked up from her work to where Gaara sat across from her. He had another frosty drink from Starbucks in his hands but it was nearly drained by now. His eyes were set on something far back over her shoulder but she didn't bother to turn around.

"I felt him when he entered the building. I can feel it whenever he gets close. He's been hovering outside the elevator downstairs for the past fifteen minute. I thought I'd be able to grade these before he finally managed to bring himself up," Sakura sighed. "I guess not. Maybe I'm getting slower."

"I think it's not you. He seems more bold."

Sakura grunted and flipped over another term paper. She had three more to double check and then she could grade the rest of the discussion posts at home. Although, home wasn't much better. Madara was still giving her the cold shoulder even days later. She thought he would be over it by now, but he seemed more capable of holding a grudge than she first assumed.

'Whatever.'

Gaara tensed at something on her face. "Are you okay."

"Fine," Sakura groaned, shutting her eyes and bending forward as more black spots danced across her vision. Her head felt trapped in a vice that squeezed and released in waves of discomfort.

It was minor, nothing compared to how bad it had been right after the ritual, but it was reminder enough that she shouldn't push herself much more. Her heart was still weak and sometimes it felt like it stalled completely in her chest for how feeble it was. It would be another couple of weeks before she was back to normal without the heart murmurs and blackouts but at least she wasn't walking with a cane anymore.

"You're not fine, you're-"

Gaara's voice got cut off as a new figure stepped in and cast his shadow over the pair of them. Kakuzu loomed over her, hands on either side of her shoulders, cradling the edges of her in case she pitched again.

"Let me take you home," he said, sounding worried.

Sakura edged forward, slapping his hands away. "I'm fine," she hissed, ignoring the black spots instead of listening to them. "Don't patronize me."

"He's not," Gaara softly interjected. "Sakura we're just worried for you."

Sakura cut a shallow sort of glare in Gaara's direction but he didn't seem to mind. He knew she wasn't really trying to be mean. He had seen worst and he wasn't afraid.

"It's alright," Kakuzu interjected, backing up and holding up his hands, palms forward. "I overstepped."

He didn't try to say anything else or make any more moves in her direction so she let it go. Sakura turned away and flipped back to the last two papers, knowing they were a quick grade. Still, Gaara and Kakuzu hovered on opposite ends of her desk. She probably was a spectacle to the rest of the faculty who could see or bothered to care what went on in her corner. It was pretty dead this time of day but still…

"Are you driving back?" Kakuzu asked once he saw that her last paper was graded.

She didn't turn to look at him as she brought up a blackboard document to track the grades through. "I'll be fine. That was the first headache I had all day."

She noticed how Kakuzu looked to Gaara and Gaara shook his head in response. "I still don't know how to drive that well," Gaara said in response to a questioning look from the older man.

"That's not safe. I didn't know you were still having issues. Let me drive you both back."

"My car is here," Sakura said without looking up from her computer.

"I'll drive your car back and leave mine here then. I can get around without it. I have a knack for dimensional shifts."

Sakura paused in her typing but then picked it up again, biting the edge of her lip. "You don't need to tell me that, I already know."

Sakura saved and then closed out of the document, clicking the button to start her computer's shut down. She didn't plan on coming back for it anytime soon. The papers were all neatly pressed inside a pastel folder she slid into her bag before sliding over her shoulder. Gaara reached for it and tugged it free before she could stand with it though.

Kakuzu held up her keys and offered them to her and it was a challenge to take them from his hand. The moment they made contact there was an uncomfortable sting in her chest where the knot that tied their thread of fate lodged deep. She hated the feel of it almost as much as the reminder for what it meant. When she snuck a glance at Kakuzu's face she saw briefly, the dazed expression that smoothed his features into something dreamlike. His scars were almost completely faded, and his hair was healthy and long over his shoulders once again, but she couldn't stand looking at him and knowing what she had done.

"Thanks," she said curtly, brushing past with the utmost care to keep her shoulders to herself and not make any more contact. He didn't seem to mind, but that just made it worse for her. If he blamed her it would have been better but he wouldn't do that because he didn't care about what was right and wrong or natural and unnatural.

He didn't care that she had been reduced to something no better than a shot of opium in his systems. He didn't care that she was his drug.

Sakura rolled the keys over in her hand and then paused when something warm seeped through the metal in her palm. She stopped in her tracks and Gaara skid beside her.

"What is it?" he asked, watching her face.

Sakura turned on her heel and held up the keys. A second later something green flashed over the one meant for her car. The same green color flashed in her eyes. "A spell?" she hissed in accusation.

"For protection," he whispered back, stepping closer so their voices wouldn't carry. "So you get home in one piece."

"I have my own magics, I can take care of myself."

"You shouldn't need to, I'm here so that I can-"

Sakura raised a single finger between them and it wasn't enchanted, but it silenced him like it was. The fire was still burning green in her eyes. "You are here because I made a mistake," she hissed so close her breath made his skin tingle. "Because I was weak and couldn't watch you die I broke my own promises, not because I need you, not because you're supposed to serve me, and not because of any other excuse you're thinking up right now."

"I don't assume anything."

He didn't pull away, and he didn't flinch, or react in any way she could tell when her eyes burned or her voice cut. He was perfectly poised and unresponsive to insult and it made her hate herself even more because she knew she was being cruel. She didn't want to be like the other Uzumaki, but it felt like every time she dipped in her magic she turned a little bit more into one of them.

"If I could cut the tether between us without consequence I would but I can't, that doesn't mean you have to follow it. Be your own man, Kakuzu."

She turned to catch Gaara's arm and drag him out. She didn't look back again because she didn't need to. The golden string of fate between her and him stretched and stretched until they were three floors and a hundred or so feet apart from each other. That's when it started to grow thin enough for her to ignore.

"You really don't like him, do you?"

Sakura didn't answer Gaara, but ran a hand through her hair and grumbled something under her breath. Outside there were plenty of fallen leaves that might have made the trip across the parking lot a delight to the senses if her mood wasn't already so foul. It was her favorite time of year but it was getting harder and harder to enjoy it.

"Is is because of who he is or is it more simple than that?"

Sakura cantered her eyes over at Gaara and frowned. "Why are you asking me. Do I have to like him?"

"He likes you."

Her heart hurt with something like guilt. "He doesn't get a choice in the matter, he has to. My fate and his are intertwined. He's predisposed to view me favorably. It's not real."

Gaara hummed in acknowledgment and the jogged over to the nearest trash can to throw away his cup before rejoining her side. She found her car and stopped to unlock it.

"Is that why you're being so mean to him, so he has an excuse to hate you?"

"I'm not being mean," Sakura lied.

Gaara knocked on the hood of her car to grab her attention. "Yes you are."

Sakura stopped, letting her keys slide back along the edge of her keyring until they dangled on a loop off her middle finger. "I'm not going to suddenly be best friends with him and give him ideas. He's not my friend and I am not his."

"You're his witch though, that has to count as something."

Sakura felt thin enough to snap, but held onto her voice as best she could. "You don't get it, I've seen this sort of thing happen before. When humans are taken as familiars it's always messy and always a violation of what it means to be human and have free will. I did a bad thing, Gaara. I took away his ability to choose. I'm no better than the other Uzumaki."

Gaara let his knuckles rest on the roof of her hood, making no sound as he watched her. They were mostly alone in the parking lot, but several lots over another student was leaving in their BMW. Sakura didn't say anything as the silver car drove by but waited for Gaara to speak.

"I think he made his choice already and you're the one not respecting it because you're feeling guilty about something else. Am I wrong?"

Sakura opened her mouth to refute him but stopped when she felt Kakuzu's string tug. It wasn't like the other tugs that announced his proximity, but one that signified his intention to alert her.

Sakura felt irritation for it and turned around to face the building they had just come from, but Kakuzu wasn't who she saw. Standing in the middle of the parking lot with his hands in the pockets of his camel colored overcoat, stood her cousin Naruto. There was no Menma in sight.

"You noticed me sooner than I thought you would," he chuckled, looking tired if the bags under his eyes was anything to go by. "Is there a reason for it, or am I just getting sloppy?"

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked, stepping sideways to place herself in front of Gaara and keep the redhead out of sight.

"We gave you a gift now we want one in return, sound familiar?" Naruto turned his head to the side and glared up at a figure in the window of the second story stairwell window. Kakuzu stood there, watching back with a look Sakura couldn't place. "He looks better. You clean him up?"

"Kakuzu doesn't have anything to do with this, he's not a thing you can gift."

"Except he is. Listen, you're sitting pretty with a brand new familiar and several other potentials," he waved his hand in Gaara's direction, "while I'm over here with nothing but an endless pool of potential. How is that fair?"

"You didn't want those cards. Something about being so great and powerful there was no need for any outside help. You gave them to me, or did you forget that?" Sakura asked, remembering how she came about getting the twin cards left inactive back at the barn house. She touched her face where he had cut her with his claws. "I remember."

He shrugged. "I played nice. It wasn't anything you couldn't heal from."

"That wasn't nice, Naruto, you're an unfeeling bully, not my friend."

"You're too sensitive. This is why girls are so annoying," he grumbled to himself. He ran a stray hand up from the base of his scalp into his hair. "Menma should be here, he's better at this than I am."

Sakura was only mildly impressed that Naruto admitted his twin was better at something than him. Being fed the story that he was the chosen child, the child or prophecy, since cradle hood, his head was bloated and his character warped. It had only gotten worse as they grew older, but Sakura remembered a time when they were both kids and he wasn't nearly so terrible.

"What is it you want?" Sakura asked. "Really want, and don't be vague about it this time."

It might have been a mistake, but she thought she saw him blush, looking frustrated or lost when he glanced up at her. "Don't say it like that. You make me sound like a bad guy."

"You clawed my face open last time."

"I do that all the time with Menma, it's not a big deal, you're fine!"

"It hurt," Sakura snapped.

Naruto ducked his head and then glanced away before forcing his eyes back to hers. "Sorry. Now will you please just come with me to dinner?"

Sakura didn't miss a beat but rolled right into her next reply with the same agitated tone. "No, sorry, I already made dinner plans, maybe some other time."

Naruto's expression was priceless. "What do you mean no? I said sorry!"

"Just because you apologize for something doesn't mean people have to do what you want. I don't want to have dinner with you or your crazy family. You've never wanted me there before so no thanks."

Sakura turned back towards her car, holding out her keys and gesturing with her chin for Gaara to go first. He nodded that he understood then turned back to slip into the car ahead of her.

Sakura hadn't taken more than two more steps when the magic touched her. She felt the tug around her waist and dropped her keys as a force pulled her backwards, dragging her on the heels of her boot across asphalt until her back slammed into Naruto's chest. She jumped away as soon as she could, spinning and reaching for her own pool of power to draw from.

Naruto looked bored, holding up his hands, palms facing her. "Chill, Sakura. I'm not here to toss you into a tree. I just wanted to talk."

"You manipulated my body!"

"I just dragged you over here, don't exaggerate. Come on," he grumbled as he reached inside his jacket and pulled out a card in an envelope. "It's not just me. It's a neat dinner with other people too. Come if you can. It's tomorrow night." He glanced down at her outfit and then smirked before adding, "Wear something fancy if you have it, I like red on you."

Naruto took a step back and flapped his hands in the air once, laughing at her expression before he blinked out of view one second there and then gone the next. His voice echoed long after his disappearance.

"You can even bring the Frankenstein monster if you feel like it!"

When Sakura turned back around Kakuzu was there, an arm's reach away. She bit back her sarcastic comment about compulsory protection when she saw how white his knuckles were. He bowed his head and leaned in closer to her. "If I knew you wouldn't hate me for it, I would have struck him. Lord of the house or not, he needn't put his hands on you."

"He didn't cut my face open this time, so I guess that's an improvement," Sakura begrudgingly admitted while holding up the card he had left her with. "Though I hate to say it, that wasn't the worst talk we've had-Naruto and I,"

"He can be vile when he wants to be."

"He didn't want to be with me," Sakura huffed, ripping into the envelope and pulling free the art deco style dinner invitation printed in black, gold, and red hues. When the light hit the card the metallic details shimmered. "Rich assholes doing something so unnecessary for something stupid."

"Are you attending?" he asked.

Sakura turned the card over, reading the back details before glancing up at Kakuzu. "If I am it's not your problem. You don't need to tag along with me."

"It would be unwise to go alone. You'd need protection."

Sakura turned back towards her car, heels on the pavement clicking in annoyance. "I can protect myself."

"From Kushina?" he snapped, stepping in front of her to block her path. Sakura drew up short and almost touched him. She knew if she did it would make something in her heart tingle.

"It's more trouble dealing with her when she doesn't get what she wants. I'll go, it'll be fine. I know her enough to know that much."

"Then do you know what she'll want with you?" When she didn't answer Kakuzu continued. "She's a proud mother who wants her son to succeed her. She's discarded the others with reckless abandon because she doesn't care about anyone who isn't her child. Now she's realizing the error of her ways. She'll try to conscript you into the coven."

"Hardly, she didn't want me the first time. At best she'll warn me to stay out of things and scare me off the idea of running with whoever that guy is that Karin and that other bone witch are running with. She's still the superior coven, even with a few cast offs gone."

"Take me with you, at least in an official capacity. I am still the executor of Mito's will, and I have history in those walls." He swallowed before adding. "I could be useful to you."

"I don't want to use you," Sakura hissed, skin crawling at the idea. "I don't care what you do, I just don't want to be the one telling you to do it."

Kakuzu frowned, reaching for the card and examining it for himself. "Fine, I will do as I please. I'll attend on my own for my own reasons. They are still my clients."

"Fine." Sakura stepped around him and stomped back to her car. "Do what you want. I don't care."

Later that evening Sakura arrived home, promptly ate a sandwich Konan had made for her, kicked off her boots, and then passed out on the couch, thoroughly exhausted. Konan fussed over Sakura, berating everyone in power over her at the school for forcing her to go in despite the ordeal she had endured only days earlier.

Madara didn't say anything, but picked something up off the ground and took it with him to read at his leisure.

"What is this?" Madara asked, holding up the card invite that had fallen from her bag onto the floor. He found Gaara reading in the loft and threw the card down in front of the book's pages.

Gaara clicked in tongue in annoyance. "It's an invitation, can you not read?"

Madara felt his lip curl. "I understand written speech perfectly fine, but what is this doing with Sakura? Why is she going to such a place?"

"Ask her that yourself. You can quit bothering me all the time for this sort of information," Gaara sighed. "You're exhausting. How long do you plan to stay mad at her for?"

"I'm not mad at her."

Gaara rolled his eyes. "You're almost as bad as she is towards Kakuzu, but at least she tires to come up with a reason, you're just an ass about denying it. You're rude to her, you know."

"I'd talk to her if she wanted to talk to me," Madara huffed, crossing his arms. "But that's not why I'm here. Tell me about this invitation."

Gaara turned a page in his book. "I don't have to tell you anything."

Madara reached up with his toe and flipped the book out of Gaara's hands, sending it flying across the room. Before Gaara could get up to retrieve it Madara brought his heel down on the redhead's chest, pinning him in place.

"Don't belittle me, boy. I don't deserve this disrespect. You know who I am, who I was, and what I can be if I'm made unhappy."

Gaara glared up from his pinned position. "You're arrogant and running on the fumes of your once great power. Maybe you could have scared me before all this, but right now I know better. Plus, Sakura's not nearly strong enough to try Kakuzu's spell with you anytime soon, so for the foreseeable future you're as useless as me."

Madara made a dismissive sound with his teeth, pulling his heel back and letting Gaara up to retrieve his book. "Who ever said I wanted that same, stupid ritual? Me, share my witch with some freakish lowlife? Not likely."

Gaara laughed. "You're jealous."

"The card, redhead, what about the card?" Madera picked the invitation back up off the floor. "What is this for?"

Gaara pat the dust off his book, fretting over the creese in the pages before telling Madara all he already knew about Sakura's visit from Naruto, and the dinner party.

"Is she taking him as her plus one?" Madara asked, glancing back down at the metallic shimmer that shined bright when he waved the card.

"Not likely, she's more upset with him than you are with her. She'll be stubborn and go without him or…" Gaara let his voice trail off. His face turned towards the edge of the balcony that overlooked the room below. From up high they could both see Sakura's sleeping form on the pillows, propped up and blanketed by Konan.

Madara narrowed his eyes at the way Gaara's face flushed. "Or what? She would take you?"

Gaara's glare snapped back into place. "Why not? I'm the better choice and the only one that she's likely to hang out with, aside from Konan. You're just a jerk."

"We may both be expiring, but I'm not nearly low enough to defer to you."

"Lucky for me you don't get a choice in the matter. It's up to her who she takes and I doubt it'll be you." Gaara tossed his book back onto the low couch and then started to climb down.

On the main level he passed where Konan sat painting a seal and then where Sakura slept on the couch. He paused at the door to unlock it, but then took off on another walk around the property. Once the door shut Konan turned around to glare up at Madara.

"I didn't do anything," he mouthed dramatically, knowing she would be more upset with him if he said anything out loud, even if it was a convincing excuse for his behavior.

Konan made a motion with her hand and face that Madara pretended to not understand, but was interrupted by Sakura bolting straight out of bed, throwing off the covers and standing on top of the couch, taller than all of them. For a brief moment Madara was reminded of the nights when she couldn't sleep and he helped her, but it was only a fleeting melancholy.

"Sakura, if you're tired you should rest." Konan was up and reaching for the girl but Sakura crackled with fresh, green magic.

"Someone has trespassed on my lands," she spoke, sounding still half asleep as she stepped down from the couch and reached for the door.

"It's just Gaara, he's out there still."

But Sakura was already at the door, leaving it to swing open behind her as she slipped free in her bare feet, still half asleep and pulled along by the weak magic from her protective barrier. Madara swung himself down from the loft and vaulted over the back of the couch to follow her out, even As Konan was getting up to do the same.

Sakura was faster than she looked, pulling ahead of them before they knew what it was that had upset her so, but Madara saw it before Konan could.

Sakura stepped off a stone no higher than her ankle and fell down on top of a body sized shadow with a bone, long and thin, growing out of wrist. There was a clattering as they went rolling past Gaara's limp body. When they stopped Sakura was on top, pressing her bone blade down against neck, only to be thrown off and sent flying.

The shadowed man stood and more of his face was exposed by moonlight. Something like a curse ran over the skin on his face.

Madara was there to catch her and then let free a small wheel of fire that lit up the dark around them. He felt Sakura tense where he held her, but didn't let go until he was finished with the fireballs that rained down from his summoned wheel.

The moment the flames died down a myriad of projectiles launched through the air, and he had to pull her down to miss the bulk of them. He saw one land in her arm and draw blood and it was enough to make his own eyes turn red.

Madara rolled her off of him and stood up, protectively crouched while he flew through a cluster of hand signs that might have meant nothing, but then when he charged there were four other copies of his body running up alongside him, each one armed with some sort of blade. The first two exploded into smoke but the third and fourth buried their blades in flesh while the original came up behind them and blew black and gold fire across the field. The man screamed and went up in flames while Konan and Sakura watched.

"Wait, what are you doing? No," Sakura gasped, the yellow flames making the gold of her eyes stand out.

But even in spite of her words, a charred body fell into pieces at his feet, silent and dead.

From where he lay Gaara groaned. His shirt was stained around his belly.

"Sakura," Konan cried, rushing to the boy's side.

Sakura stayed standing where she landed, bare toes curled into damp midnight soil. Her knuckles were scraped and the hole where her bone sword had left her wrist was wet with blood but sealing up. She seemed more alive with aggressive energy running through her bones. He could hear her heartbeat, no longer pitiful and murmuring.

"The other coven," was all she said before turning to where Gaara lay. He saw her mouth twist in anger even as she sank to her knees and moved her blood into Gaara's sealing his wounds and dragging him back to life.

Madara glanced back at the charred body then kicked it with his heel. Parts of it flickered with orange light that reminded him too much of the dinner invitation. It was only a feeling, but he had learned to trust his feelings.

"They'd be wise to not try and mess with us from now on, whoever they are."

* * *

 

 


	12. Dinner for Two

The Barn

 

Dinner for Two

* * *

Sakura let the single curl fall back against the side of her face as she watched her reflection in the mirror. The rest of her hair had been coiled up and pinned into an elaborate, inverted bun threaded with the pearl tipped pins that Konan helped her spear through. When she turned her head to the side they caught the light in a subtle way diamond or rhinestones just couldn't pull off. Both girls agreed it was the right choice.

It was only dinner, but Naruto's joke about dressing up wasn't exactly a joke. He meant to be mocking about it, to throw light on the differences between his and her family. Even if they both had Uzumaki ancestry, they were so far removed from one another that some wouldn't even consider them related anymore. Her last name was Haruno, but somewhere up the family tree she came from the legacy of a great witch and she wasn't less than Naruto for it, no matter how privileged he was.

"The hair is perfect."

Sakura grinned at the complement and half turned to face Konan. "I wish I could take you instead, but I'm sure you'd put me to shame," Sakura sighed. "You're much more suited to a party like this."

"Girls shouldn't compare themselves against one another." Konan reached up and bopped Sakura on the nose, grinning at the childish reaction. "And they also shouldn't lie."

"It's not a lie. You'd look amazing in this dress."

"I know, but that's not what you said," Konan said with a shrug, forgoing the false modesty Sakura was used to hearing from other women and girls. It was refreshing to see someone else believe in their complements so honestly.

Sakura dropped her hands from her hair, resisting the urge to prim and poke the style any more. It was steady and it looked fine and that was all that mattered. She had almost forgotten all the things she could do with hair when it grew out past her shoulders and down her back. Sometimes she was too busy to even remember she had it.

On the bed an assortment of dresses were laid out, but one was set aside, having been chosen earlier by the pair unanimously. It was completely black and devoid of the red color Naruto so piggishly requested.

The front had a thin layer that hung down like a cape to her elbows, while in the back an extra layer trailed all the way to the dress' end just above her knees. It was supposed to be a cocktail dress, but it wasn't low cut or thin enough for that. Sakura appreciated the density of the fabric when she slid it on and fit it to her curves. It complemented, but nothing more. Naruto would be disappointed.

Sakura picked through the rest of her things until she found a very dirty and messily used white fur coat that had been a steal from the local thrift store. She turned it over, grimacing at the yellowed and knotted state it was in. Once upon a time it had been designer, but someone didn't believe in it anymore so five dollars later it was hers.

"I guess this does constitute as an emergency," she sighed.

Konan grinned as she watch Sakura turn it inside out and then shake it hard enough to snap out all the years of use and neglect. She snapped it again for good measure and the smell came back. Something that might have been Chanel for all she knew. When she turned it right-side again the coat was immaculate and still warm from the first woman who ever wore it.

"What a wonderful restoration. Did it take you long to learn that spell?"

"Not nearly," Sakura laughed, settling the coat on her shoulders to rest. "I was desperate to catch up with the approval I'd never earn in rags, but our family wasn't nearly wealthy enough to satisfy Kushina or even Mito's standards. Mito mostly just cared if you were neat, clean, and well dressed, but Kushina noticed brand names."

"Branding is a folly I do not yet understand," Konan said, waving a dismissive hand at the rest of her dresses.

"You haven't had a pair of Jimmy Choos or Louboutins then."

Sakura laughed, bewitching the black heels to levitate out of her closet with a flick of her finger. They settled down in front of her obediently, still warm with leftover magic. It was so easy to wave a finger and do things the magic way, she wondered why she didn't more often. How had she gone so many years pretending she wasn't special? Why did she choose to struggle on her own without her gift for that long?

She inhaled deep, spreading the Chanel perfume over the rest of her body, drawing on the memory of it to make it expand. Her magic flared under her skin, making her flush as she almost went too far. It was a feeling like hanging one leg off the side of a cliff into empty air, knowing if the weight of the body shifted, there would be a free fall.

"Sakura?"

She glanced up at Konan and smiled. The older woman looked more stern, analyzing Sakura's face with a critical eye. She saw beyond the surface and the question hung between them. 'Are you alright?'

"Yeah, I just was starting to get carried away I think. I'm still not used to using magic so frequently."

"That can be overwhelming, since your magic is like a dam that wants to break free. I can tell, we all can feel it when you cast. It's been building up for years, hasn't it?"

Sakura rubbed a spot on her forehead. "I've mostly been able to ignore it. I thought it all dried up."

Konan watched her with a steady eye and a knowing smile. "You've used it quite frequently these past few weeks, since our arrival. If your fire was an ember in the fireplace before, all this activity has surly stocked it into something roaring inside of you, no?"

"Are chakra and magic really that similar for you to understand?"

"Not entirely. The source of our power, however similar it might be to yours, is different. The way human control, channels, and manipulate their power-regardless of the source- is just too similar not to notice."

Konan extended her hand and it began to flutter out and flare into a collection of little papers that broke off and folded up on themselves. She folded and folded until her body wasn't there anymore and instead a white rose that started to turn itself black bloomed in her place. Sakura picked it up and attached it to her hair, smiling at how the warmth was still there.

There was a knock on the screen and Sakura waved at the panels to collapse and fold in on themselves, revealing Madara in a neat three piece suit that might have looked dated on anyone else. His hair was pulled up and braided in a fishtail over his shoulder.

"The kid's asleep. You ready?" he grunted.

Sakura reached out and the black clutch from her nightstand flew through the air to land in her hand. It sparkled with a mother of pearl latch but was also as black as her eyeliner.

"Let me check on him first before we leave," she said, brushing past him.

On the sofa with more blankets and pillows than usual, Gaara lay propped and tucked. Sakura touched his face and he started to turn towards her in his sleep. He was still cold, but the healing seals she had woven into the blankets from years ago still held. His wound was closed, but the damage it did still shocked his systems and he was sweating out the fever. She gave him another night, maybe not the whole night, but after that he'd be nearly back to normal.

"I don't feel comfortable leaving him here alone."

Madara didn't seem concerned. "He's fine. He was up and moving earlier,"

"It's one of the reasons I'm worried, he nearly undid my work!" Sakura hissed in what was supposed to be a whisper.

Konan warmed in her hair and Sakura pet the rose, grateful for the offer. "I still need you to help set up surveillance in the Uzumaki household, but…."

"I can set those up with a shadow clone," Madara huffed, flipping a strand of hair out of his face. "If you want someone to watch the kid then let Konan stay."

Sakura pulled the rose from her hair and held it in her palms. "Konan, what do you think?"

The flower began to peel away, petal by, petal until she was back in her usual form, looking forlorn. "You're right. It wouldn't be fair to leave him here alone. I don't want him waking up and getting confused." Then she glared up at Madara. "You don't dare leave her side this time."

Madara glared back. "I just told you I wouldn't. I can use the shadow clones to do what I need to."

She waved her hand and a handful of sealing tags that looked like white scraps of paper with ancient writing inked down the front appeared. Konan pressed the tags on Madara's chest like she wanted to make a point. Her eyes flashed with anger, but it might have been chakra or magic or power in some other unnamed form. "Don't leave her this time."

Madara took the seals and grumbled, but didn't say anything. Konan looked back down to Sakura and then produced another handful of seals, but they were different. "What are these?" Sakura asked.

"If you need me, I'll be able to come to you. Madara is an ass-" from the side Madara made a noise of protest, "but he is a reliable fighter and will be able to defend you if the worst happens, so long as he's really there.

"Would you quit it with the character assassination. She gets it. We'll be fine. I'm sure the other freak will be there as well. Nothing will happen between the two of us."

Konan shook her finger. "Don't sound so upset about it. And no unnecessary fighting between the two of you."

"What's necessary fighting look like then?" Madara shot back with a mocking grin that twisted his lips into something rakish.

Konan huffed in frustration, nearly at her limit with him. "You should know better by now, you're a grown man. Use your words, not your hands."

"I can make those hurt too."

Konan groaned and the buried her face in her hands. "This is why Gaara would have been a better choice. Maybe he murdered a lot of people as a kid but at least he learned how to get along with people later on."

Sakura wasn't sure she knew the part about Gaara murdering a lot of people, but decided it wasn't something she wanted to dig into at just that moment. She stored that information away and looked to Madara who's eyes were flinty and narrowed in Konan's direction. Sakura didn't see the situation getting any better, but feared how much worse it could grow, so she put her hand on Madara's arm and gestured to the door.

"It's getting late, we should go," she said.

Madara's wry grin fell off his face, like all the joy he earned from tormenting someone else reached its end with her. He nodded once and then ducked his head to brush past her and leave the door open behind him. He didn't say anything but Sakura bristled at the silence.

He was waiting outside by the car for her, looking bored until a spark of stray magic made the air by his face pop. He turned to face her, spinning on his heel, but froze when he saw her expression. Behind them the front door closed on its own.

"What now?" he snapped.

"I am going into the house of my enemy with a disobedient child on my arm. How do you think that makes me feel, Madara?"

"You think I'm a child now?" he sneered. "You don't know what I'm-"

Her eyes glowed with gold light as Madara was lifted off his feet and pulled forward, stopping suddenly just inches from her face. There was more control in her telekinesis than Naruto's. At least she knew how to stop a person in time.

She grabbed his face between her thumb and her forefinger, squeezing his lips and dragging the direction of his eyes down. She was a good head shorter than he was, but she didn't let that influence her position in their relationship. She was the one in charge.

"There is no joy in my heart right now. It makes my gut roll to think of going back to that place like this, like everything is okay, when we all know it isn't. I'm nearly sick from disgust but you don't see me balking, do you?" she shook his head for him and he glared at her manipulations. He still hovered over the gravel, suspended by the magic that made her bones hum. "Do you know why?"

"Let go of my face you-"

She shook his face harder, applying more pressure until his lips puckered. He couldn't even snarl like he wanted to. She could see it in his eyes how he wanted to bite her. He wasn't the type of person that liked being dominate so easily, she guessed.

"I'm going because there is shit going down in my backyard and I might not own the cattle but I can still smell their crap same as anyone, so I deal with it. Understand me?"

Madara fought against her control, listing his arms up and pushing with all his might to grab her wrist. She twitched her pinky and he was pushed back and hung in the air, spread eagle. Slowly she let him start to spin, like a man caught on a spinning wheel in front of a knife thrower. The long curl that lay against her skull and the small stray twirls of hair started to rise around her face.

He might have cursed at her, but frozen and immobile as he was, Madara somehow managed to smile. It was a wide wicked smile that grew as her powers did. He almost seemed to be egging her on, but she wasn't about to fall for his teasing. She inverted his body completely so he was upside down and face level with her.

"You don't look like you have anything to be scared of," he said.

Her bones were humming and she felt like lighting was running back and forth throughout her body, but it was something she could ignore-a feeling she could bury until later.

"I'm terrified but that doesn't mean I can't also be brave. I need to know you're not going to be the asshole Konan thinks you will be, but more than that, I need to know you'll not be an embarrassment to me."

"You think I'm embarrassing?" he scoffed.

"You stormed off ahead of me, you didn't hold the door open for me, you didn't offer your arm, and you don't even look at me without grimacing. I know those sound like stupid complaints, and I know you hate me right now, but if I'm going to rely on you I need to know you're capable of it."

It was too dark to see if his face flushed, but she did see his eyebrows draw together. "You wouldn't want to be touched by me."

"Oh yeah, why not? What's your reason for that, hmm?"

He fidgeted in space. "You chose  _him_  over me."

"He was dying, it didn't matter who you were or who he was. I didn't want to see anyone else fall apart in front of me. Quit acting like it was personal."

"It was personal to me!" he snapped. "He already had one witch, and she wasn't you. Doesn't it disgust you to take someone else's leftovers."

Sakura sighed, feeling terrible for almost understanding where his anger came form. It didn't mean his behaviors or actions were excused, but it did help her understand them.

She flicked her wrist and he started to turn back around, spinning until he was upright and then dropped him onto his feet. He landed with a grunt and the agility of a cat.

"That's not how I see it. I just didn't want him to die. But if you can't get past that then fine, you don't need to like me, just pretend for the rest of the evening and I'll promise to keep trying to find a way to free you and the others from this curse without any more contracts."

"Don't think too much of yourself, I don't dislike you, I'm just…upset at your choices," Madara said, hesitating when he remembered his conversation with Gaara. "I don't hate you."

She didn't seem to believe him. "You don't have to like me, just…could you please pretend to get along and watch my back tonight?" Sakura raised her arm, offering it to him. Her voice sounded tired and thin, nothing at all like how it was before when she had him spinning in the air. "Please."

Madara swallowed before stepping close enough to loop arms with her. He rested his hand on where her elbow touched his and pat it once before leaning in to whisper in her ear. "I don't have to pretend. I do like you, I was just being an asshole."

She colored prettily at his words, but forced her smile into something easy. "You don't have to admit it out loud, I already knew that much." She blinked and looked up at him. "Does this mean we're friends again?"

"For now," he conceded.

Sakura took out the invitation and laid it down under the steering wheel and stepped back as the art deco designs spread out over the edges of the card and seeped into the floor mats, up the sides, around the steering wheel, and then into the vents and out of sight. The car roared to life on its own and started to melt into something with more history to it. A minute later Sakura and Madara were staring at the sleek and elegant body of something out of the late 1930's.

Madara reached forward first and held the door open for her to slide in before he followed. It didn't matter that he didn't know how to drive or have a license, because the moment he shut the door behind them the car turned its wheels out of the driveway and rolled out on its own. It knew where it was going and all Sakura and Madara had to do was sit back and let it take them where they needed to be.

If a patron was early the car would crawl, if a patron was late the car would race, but Madara and Sakura were right on time so the drive was smooth and easy. Those others on the road who might have been annoyed at their cruise just under the speed limit lost their annoyance when they saw the design.

Sakura complemented the mechanics of the spell, admitting that it was one she wouldn't be able to replicate without proper training, and she was already too old for that. Coven witches were raised from youth and taught while they were still impressionable.

Madara told her she didn't need to learn anything new, and that she was plenty powerful just the way she was with her bones as a medium.

"Power isn't all that if you can't supplement it with control."

"You have plenty of that too," he chuckled.

Sakura shrugged. "Then there's design. I wasn't very good at  _that_."

"Design?" he echoed.

Sakura held up her hands and her fingers made a triangle. "There's the source of your magic, the control of your magic, and the design of your magic. The Well, the Wand, and the…the, I've forgotten what the third name is, but basically those are the three domains of a spell, and every witch has their strength and weakness in some area. I had great control, and a pretty basic pool of magic, but I lacked the final design element to my spells."

Madara nodded, listening to her words with purpose as more street lights passed overhead. Outside another car sped up to get around them and race off into the night. "And how is 'design' improved?"

"Through study mostly. You research old spells and most of the time you copy what someone else has already done. The Uzumaki libraries are choked with spell books and enchantment manuals. It's one of the reasons their coven is so feared and respected."

"How do you improve if you have nothing to study?"

Sakura tried to remember what it felt like when she was so young and unnoticed, before they called her over for weekend stays. In those days all she had were the voices of the flowers to guide her into their growth, the tickle of the wind and the whisper of tree leaves to help her understand how to control such elements. Some things came more naturally than others, but not many.

"I think that's a reason so many witches go unnoticed. There's a little magic, but until you know it's there, and you know how to use it for something specific, and what it feels like when you succeed, it's nearly impossible to wake up."

She remembered something else and glanced down at her hand, the one that had been injured long ago. The pain was absent and the bones completely healed. Nothing remained aside from the trauma that would never let her paint again like she used to.

"But sometimes it's better to stay asleep. It's not worth it sometimes."

Their car turned down another lane and suddenly they could see how the sprawling manor stretched out in front of them, lit up in twinkling lights that floated in place without string or cord.

The car pulled up to a circular driveway where several other enchanted automobiles were already parked and unloading their guests. The driverless cars then shut their own doors and turned down a side lane into a lot where they parked and turned off.

Sakura leaned forward to watch and see who got out of the car in front of her and her stomach sank when she recognized the deep red of Karin's favorite dress. She slid out and then turned for someone else to follow. He came up behind her and then turned around to wave the car off. He was an older man who walked with a cane. Further up the steps a pair of men in suits the same color as his waited. Sakura recognized one of them.

"Someone you know?" Madara asked.

Sakura pointed to one of the two boys waiting for Karin. He was pale with raven black hair combed nearly over his skull as he almost slouched into an easy posture. Some might call him handsome and once upon a time Sakura might have been one of them. "That boy there is a witch. His name is Sai. I don't recognize any of the others, but an orphaned witch with his skill is bound to be taken into a coven. It must be the same one Karin ran off to."

"Any ideas on what coven that might be?"

Sakura chuckled, but it was a dry, sarcastic sound. "Not a clue. I'm too busy trying to unravel your own mystery. I don't have time for their drama or their squabbles."

Their car rolled to a stop and Madara slid over to the door to open it for the both of them, turning and offering her his hand as she climbed free. She smiled at the gesture and let him help her out. The door behind her shut on its own and the car rolled away to join the others in the dark. He took her hand and looped his arm through hers, turning the pair of them up towards the house.

They made it inside where a man took their coats to the coat check and offered to 'lead them in.' A new voice cut in, claiming that was unnecessary.

Sakura and Madara both turned to see Kakuzu there, waiting with one hand in his pocket, the other clutching a short velvet box. Kakuzu's eyes were a sick glowing green as he glared at Madara.

No one noticed the footman excusing himself to help the next guest.

 

 


	13. Dual Communion

****

**The Barn**

* * *

Chapter Fifteen  
Dual Communion

* * *

"I can take it from here," Kakuzu claimed, stepping forward.

Madara sneered, his expression taunting. "Not likely. You came on your own."

Sakura felt electricity in the air but it was impossible to separate the tension from the magic, as the two sources were so closely intertwined. Madara was far more powerful and skilled, but his well of magic, or chakra as he called it, was running low and once it ran out he would be as bad off as Kakuzu had been when Sakura made their binding contract. Kakuzu on the other hand…

His magic felt sheer to her, and she knew that was because she was the source. It would be impossible for him to hurt her with it. To anyone else…she wondered what his magic felt like to them. His magic had barbs in it, she could tell that much even if she couldn't feel it. Kakuzu wasn't to be underestimated.

"That's enough," she finally sighed, holding up her hands. "I'm in no mood to entertain anymore pissing contests between the two of you or anyone else here tonight." She slanted her eyes upward to the staircase that swelled at the base than curved elegantly upstairs to the living quarters of the home's residents. "Especially when I know you two aren't the only ones here with something to make a ruckus about."

Madara leaned back on his heels, crossing his arms, but Kakuzu seemed to bend towards her, chastised by her words. That's when she noticed the box in his left hand, but he was already moving it back into his pants pocket.

"If you want to take your seats I can show you the way," Kakuzu offered, glancing down at Sakura who stood a good head shorter than him. He seemed to bend and fold himself to make himself seem smaller, but it was an impossible task when he was the tallest one in the room, even taller than Madara.

"It might be best if we go sit down," she admitted, nodded his way.

Kakuzu straightened and swept his arm out, indicating she follow him before turning and leading them out of the hallway that fed into a new dining room, one vast enough for a table stretched to accommodate almost two dozen guests. Each place setting was decorated in variations of soft gold, white china, and baby breath. The centerpiece was made out of bleeding orange, red, and yellow foxglove arrangements. Crawling ivy stretched down the length of the table, curling around the empty platters and dishes that would be filled as the courses were served.

A few faces were already standing behind their chairs with glass flutes filled in something soft and sparkling. Others abled in the corners, talking together in huddles. Sakura saw Karin standing next to Sai with the unnamed man behind them. The bone witch she had fought before wasn't there, neither was Tayuya.

Karin caught her eye across the room and held it before glancing away. Sakura pretended that didn't hurt, because it shouldn't. They weren't close. Karin was the girl on the inside and Sakura had always been the one looking in. Still, Sakura couldn't help but pity the girl who wore her skin like a woman.

"Your places are here at this end," Kakuzu said, leading her along to the opposite side of the table.

Sakura felt her dread grow as they drew closer and closer to the head of the table. She was three seats down from where Kushina would sit, and on her right side. Directly to Kushina's right sat her husband, and then Kakuzu and then Sakura. On her one side Sakura would have Madara, on the other, Kakuzu.

Sakura wanted to walk around the table and see where everyone else would be sitting, but the bell chimed form somewhere far off, echoing with magic so that everyone and anyone with ears would be able to hear it. Conversations broke off mid word as all the guests waited for the chimes to end before turning to find their seats. Some still murmured in their groups, but it was all soft and under their breath.

"This is only the first part," Kakuzu whispered to her, ignoring Madara's glare. "Nothing of significance will be said until we retire for coffee."

Sakura almost rolled her eyes, remembering the rituals from her childhood. The Uzimaki were painfully traditional and carried on like they were still a part of the past. Sakura didn't have the patience for it all, no matter how pretty.

"I remember," she sighed, reaching for her seat.

Madara reached for it before she could touch it though, and moved in front of Kakuzu. "Allow me," he murmured, pulling it out for her.

Sakura took her seat and let Madara push her in while Kakuzu helped himself into his own setting. She could feel his attention with every movement, but didn't turn his way or address it.

At the back of the room, behind the head of the table, Kushina came out on the arm of her husband Minato, radiant as ever in gold art deco styled designer threads and jewels. She smiled wide and bright across the room before sweeping her arms in a gesture that encouraged everyone to take their plates. She was helped into her seat by her husband, but caught Sakura's eye and winked before he pushed her in.

"You look better there," Minato cheered in good humor as he turned towards Kakuzu. "We're glad to see you back in one piece."

"Indeed," Kakuzu answered with a humble nod of his head. "I am infinitely blessed, more so as of late."

Behind them the staff came out with individual trays of soup and side salads. In the kitchen not so far away, someone was roasting lamb for the later main course.

Sakura turned away, leaning towards Madara to avoid both Kakuzu's conversation and the attention of Naruto, who was seated directly across the table from her. His glare was heavy and directed, so she shouldn't have been able to avoid t, but she did.

Next to Kushina sat a matronly witch from a west coast coven, and then Menma, and then Naruto. Sakura couldn't help but suspect that to be a deliberate switch made on the young heir's behest. Naruto was still pissed at her, it seemed.

"Is he still glaring at me," Sakura asked from behind the rim of her glass, leaning over close to Madara to hide her lips behind his ear.

"Positively snarling with his eyes if you ask me," Madara chuckled darkly, taking some delight in the boy's displeasure. "He looks even worse now that we're talking like this. Maybe we should keep it up. Tell me something trivial, I'll laugh."

"Call me crazy, but I'm not eager to antagonize Kushina's son any more than I have already."

"That's not trivial," Madara chuckled, bending his head as his shoulders shook with a falsified emotion. "Tell me something better."

"You're horribly annoying and I'm regret asking you to join me here."

Madara turned more towards her, pulling away enough that it was possible. "Now you don't, and I'm the best fun you've ever had with anyone." His smile was rakish. "Or I could be if you wanted me to break some boundary rules." Under the table his hand found hers and tickled the inside of her wrist.

The other hand resting on the table jerked and Sakura caught the lingering glow of Naruto's magic as it faded from the dinner knife he enchanted to spin into Menma's hand. It wasn't a deep cut, as it wasn't a sharp knife, but it made Madara jerk back and grunt in surprised.

Sakura hissed, angry at Naruto but more worried about Madara. She grabbed her napkin to dab at the bleeding cut, channeling cool healing into the injury until it wasn't even a pink scar on his skin anymore. When she was done she finally looked up at Naruto and glared, but his smile was cheeky.

"Don't be rude, Naruto, or you'll chase your cousin away. Look at her, she looks ready to spring for the bathroom." Kushina's voice echoed from just over Sakura's shoulder. The witch was bouncing her voice with magic so only those who she wanted to hear it did. Kakuzu still seemed oblivious.

"I think that's a better idea myself, don't you, Sakura?"

Sakura looked up at the head of the table where Kushina smiled. She pushed her chair back and stood, patting her husband on the shoulder before slipping out into the hall.

"I need to use the bathroom," Sakura whispered to Madara before she too slipped form her seat and turned towards the hall.

It was empty, but she remembered the way to the power room from ages past. She turned the next corner and it should have been just as empty because there was no one in front of her, but it wasn't. Kushina leaned over Sakura's shoulder, draping her arm there.

"You're such a smart cookie," she purred. She reached with her fingers and pinched Sakura's cheek. "No wonder my little one is still star stuck at the very name of you."

"You're too kind," Sakura breathed, forcing her eyes to stare ahead.

One of Kushina's hands dipped down the front of Sakura's dress and tapped the light pink scar over her chest, the only reminder of when she pulled her second heart free to make Kauzu whole. "You've entertained me more than I thought originally possible. Your instincts are dazzling."

"What do you want?"

"Isn't it a better idea to tell me what you want, my dear? I know you're lacking in the bookwork field and I have a library collecting dust just below out feet for you to browse at your leisure. Wouldn't you like that? You might even find a way to let free those trapped souls before their time runs out."

"I'm not stupid, tell me what you want," Sakura insisted, pulling away and turning around to face the coven matriarch.

"Fine, I'll not waste your time. You saw out guest who came with his pet, and Karin? He's annoying and I want him gone."

"Then beat him back on your own. Can't you?"

"Too much work. I'm too proper a lady at this age for tossing spell and hexes."

Kushina words rang with the echo of a hundred different lies, but Sakura knew better than to call the woman out so soon. If she was incapable, she didn't want it spreading.

Kushina's easy smile fell away. "The man I refer to, Danzo, has been growing a coven with the aid of someone I am loathed to engage. If it was only one warlock bastard stealing my castoffs I wouldn't bother, but Danzo has his own bone witch when the only other one I know of, apart from you my dead, hails from across the continent in Orochimaru's coven. I'll not mix up with his perverted lot."

Sakura was unschooled in the culture of witchy ways, she wasn't up to date on all the covens and warlock and witches, but she did know that male witches, also called warlocks, were far more rare and often times not as powerful as their female counterparts, but there were always exceptions-like Naruto. Orochimaru didn't start out as an exception, but he substituted his natural gift with the alchemic knowledge and forbidden research to climb to a position of power that cast a shadow over half the country. He was a snake no one wished to meddle with nearly a hundred years later.

"You think Danzo is working with Orochimaru?" Sakura breathed.

"I think Orochimaru might be using Danzo to see how weak out hold has become," Kushina admitted, glancing upwards to the flickering sigils on the walls that lit up with her power, keeping their words secret. "I wouldn't put it past the old snake to be so vile."

"I don't see a reason to get anymore caught up that I already am. I'm not even technically a part of the Uzamaki family. I failed that test, remember?"

"A mistake easily corrected on our part. I'd like to formally bring you into our fold. You're strong enough for it now."

Sakura felt pain in her hand, stinging with a phantom of memory. "I was strong enough for it back then too, you're just lowering your impossible standards for me. Once this matter is settled you'll go back to hating me, won't you?"

"Naruto wouldn't let me," Kushina sighed. "And since he will be coven head after me, I will respect his wishes."

"I don't trust or respect Naruto. He's still too much of a spoiled child," Sakura admitted, feeling a rush of adrenaline as she spoke her mind. Maybe she was too bold, but she didn't care anymore.

Kushina's blue eyes flashed yellow. "You don't have to trust him, but be wise enough to fear what is fearful, girl." Kushina stalked forward and Sakura stood her ground until they were nearly nose to nose.

"I will do as I please," Sakura hissed. "You can't control me."

"Rich words coming from a witch who enslaved her first familiar. You're better than us now? You don't even care about what I could offer you, what I could offer them. Do you want to see them all suffer and slip back into that curse or would you rather I help you break it?"

"If you could have done that you would have already."

"Maybe it wasn't in my best interest to free unshackled agents of power." Kushina leaned back on her heels and then reached for Sakura's longest curl, petting it. "But I suppose you don't know any better. Poor thing. Too scared of her own magic to learn its secrets. Should I tell you something good?"

"I don't think I want your help."

Kushina smiled and it was a fox's smile, all cunning and sly edges. Before Sakura could stop her, Kushina had reached into Sakura's chest, hand curling around her heart as magic made a portal just wide enough for her wrist. Sakura's magic went wild as she grabbed the woman's wrist, but it did no good. Her nails were already in her chest.

"This is what you need to end that terrible curse. All the magic in here, all the darkness, pour it into your heart and eat it up. Free those figures my foolish boy trapped for you, give them new bodies from the stores we keep on ice downstairs, and in return all I ask is that you help me keep the peace."

Sakura felt her heart pinch from the woman's nails, but grit her teeth. "I'll not submit to Naruto. I'll swear no allegiance." She felt braver than she had in a long while. "Death first," she dared.

Kashina's eyes flashed gold again, but in delight. "Of course, you're like this aren't you? I don't think I could kill you if I burst your heart in my hand anyway. Then give me this, swear you will not rise up against my son, swear you will not oppose him, swear you will not harm him."

"I-I can't-I, no, you can't bind me in anything!" Sakura struggled, feeling hot all over as her magic discharged harmlessly from her teeth and fingertips. She imagined Naruto a horrible coven head and felt her resolve harden even more. "If I need to-I'd stop him."

Her anger made her brave, but Sakura didn't doubt she had been also a fool with her admission. Kushina's hand was literally around her heart, ready to burst it at a moment's notice. Sakura didn't want anything to do with the world of covens or magic, but she couldn't stand being cowed into anything.

Kushina watched Sakura carefully, holding the younger girl's eye with her own unwavering stare. Sakura waited for the moment when Kushina would squeeze, but it didn't come. Instead Kushina pulled back, expression serious. She drew her hand free and snapped her wrist to shake off the excess blood. Sakura's magic raced to heal the bruises and soothe the areas of hurt in her chest.

"Then do so," Kushina whispered with a look to open to be deceitful. "Be his anchor in the new world when I can not. If you need to…end my poor boy."

It was the last thing Sakura expected from the mother. "What?"

"I'm not blind, nor foolish. I know what the future is capable of being. Nothing is assured, but….the possibility remains that he might become a monster."

Everyone who knew Naruto knew that, but Sakura didn't think Kushina would ever admit it. "You're his mother. Why are you saying this to me?"

Kushina waved her hand again and a door leading down opened up. She nodded to it before stepping under the arch first and defending the stone staircase. Sakura hurried to catch up.

"I'll need you on the outside for whatever happens next. The dinner will end shortly. My clone has already summoned the desert. I'll send your boys down her behind me, and then when Naruto comes, please…keep my words in mind."

"You're not making sense. What do you want me to do?"

The pair of them landed at the base of the staircase two stories later, coming out onto a platform that overlooked a stronghold of knowledge. The legendary collection of the Uzumaki, over two thousand years of relics and repository items. Magic spells on human leather and vials of festering plagues locked behind enchanted doors beside bewitched mirrors. Sakura saw one and recognized the scene on the other side.

"That's the Barn! You were spying on me?" Sakura exclaimed, pointing to the mirror.

"Naturally."

Sakura felt hot even with the temperature so cool.

Kushina pointed elsewhere and Sakura paled at the tables lined with bodies on cold quartz. They were John and Jane does that were waiting to. Be remade into the bodies of new familiars. "You'll need these materials for Zabuza and Kisame. And over there…." She pointed to a tome laid open on a pedestal. "You'll find the spell you need, bone witch. End the curse if you can."

Kakuzu and Madara retreated with the rest of the host to the coffee lounge to take drink with the others. The real Kushina returned just in time for that, but he doubted anyone aside from her husband could tell she had switched out at all.

He forced his way up to her side and bent low. "Where is she?" he whispered in a tone that was barely civil.

He had felt her anger and then nothing as she slipped off the radar. It was like losing a limb. He couldn't feel her and it was driving him up a wall.

"You remember the repository. Take her pet with you and help her if you can. I've set her up with some homework."

Kakuzu glanced back over his shoulder at Madara and then to where Karin walked beside the warlock Danzo. Something had unsettled him about the man all evening long. He didn't like being apart from Sakura, but he also didn't like looking away from someone that unnerved him so much. In the end, the need to be close to Sakura won out.

"Fine."

He stepped back and grabbed Madara by the wrist a bit too roughly to be necessary. "Here," he hissed, tugging the Uchiha down a back hallway.

"Where is she?" Madara asked before they were even out of view from the others.

Kakuzu ducked his head, glaring at the floor as he counted the grooves until he reached the one he wanted. "Shut up and follow me, buffoon." He dug his heel into the floor at just the right spot and a magic sigil lit up on the wall beside him.

Madara dashed inside the opening before Kakuzu even had the chance to lift his foot. Madara's face was turned up and his eyes flashed red seeing the chamber for what it was.

"Where does this go?" he asked. "Sakura is here somewhere."

"Keep going," Kakuzu growled.

He pushed forward, taking the stairs two at a time, descending rapidly in hopes of leaving Madara behind. He had wanted to speak with Sakura privately, to try and explain to her again that he was happy with how things had turned out, that he didn't blame her the way she blamed herself. He thought if they could just talk about it things would work out. He had something for her too.

There was light from somewhere at the bottom of the spiraling staircase's end. Madara started to rush but Kakuzu pulled ahead, reaching the landing first. Kakuzu knew where to look so he saw it first, the pair of bodies that were transformed and thrumming with new magic as Sakura's golden strings of fate bound her to either body. He recognized Kisame more than Zabuza, but knew who both were at once.

"Shit," Madara cursed, something in him making his magic dance erratically around him. He leaned over the railing, gripping it with white knuckles. "Them," he hissed. "Both of them but not-uugh."

"It's not that big of a deal," Kakuzu huffed. "It's not like it was with me-those are  _gold_  strings. She preformed Communion."

When Sakura made a body for Kakuzu his thread of fate typing him to her was platinum and stronger than theirs. Sakura had preformed an  _Engagement_  with him. He was still closest to her. At least he wasn't Madara, who wasn't bound to her at all.

Still, it was odd that she bound the pair of nin at all. Hadn't she been opposed to the whole concept of human familiars? Wasn't that why she was so disgusted with him in the first place?

He pushed his questions aside, saved for later, and took a second set of stairs down to her level, running in time to catch her as she began to pitch. Madara hung back at the base of the staircase, watching from underneath a hanging shadow.

"Sakura, what are you doing?" He looked up over her to where the bodies started to stir with the first signs of life. "I thought you wouldn't be -I thought you were opposed to this."

"I don't have much more of a choice it seems," she grumbled, trying to stand up on her own again. She wavered and he caught her by her elbows. "That's what the text said."

"What text?"

She pointed to the table where she had dragged a large tome and left it open to a page written in Japanese. Kakuzu recognized it at once. "The curse."

Sakura took a deep breath and then found a place inside her where she could make herself steady once more. She took a step on her own and Kakuzu let her.

Sakura approached the tome and traced the writings. "I can eat it once I free all the souls trapped inside…then when I sever the connection they'll be free agents, not familiars anymore."

"That means you'll make me your familiar." Madara stepped forward out of the shadows.

Sakura nodded slowly, glanced back to the last two bodies left unturned, one was male and the other female. "I'll have to grow another heart though. I only have enough material for Gaara and then Konan."

Madara's face eased into a smile but Kakuzu felt cold all over. "You mean you'll preform  _Communion_  on Konan and Gaara but you'll use… _Engagement_  on Madara?"

"We'll see. I won't be able to do anything more than this for now….not for a while. I'm drained."

She sank onto a bench seat in front of a table, shoulders bending towards her knees as heaviness settled in her bones. She looked exhausted but Kakkuzu was amazed she wasn't already dead asleep, since she completed _two_ familiar contracts back to back. A lesser witch would have been devastated by the effort it took to manage just one.

For not the first time, Kakuzu was a little awed by Sakura.

Madara watched her with a look Kakuzu could only describe as hungry, and it sent shivers up and down his spine. When Sakura sat Madara approached her bench slowly enough for her to react to his proximity, but she let him draw near without comment. He knelt at her knee and whispered something into her ear. When she nodded Kakuzu had an idea of what it was he had asked her.

"If you need to rest, there are beds here. You shouldn't be apart from Kisame and Zabuza until they wake."

Sakura waved her hand and a mark glowed above both Kisame and Zabuza's heads. "They won't wake until I come back for them in the morning. I'll... be back as soon as I'm rested."

Madara helped her up and she turned towards a mirror Kushina used to scry on the interior of Mito's old barn house, Sakura's current home. Kakuzu knew what she was about to do.

"Wait! If you're leaving I have something-"

"I'll be back in the morning," Sakura promised, too tired to even turn his way as she touched the glass and melted it into something she could step through. Madara glanced back over her shoulder, a sly grin masked by her skin.

Before Kakuzu could stop her, Sakura was gone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll admit I enjoy the angst of Kakuzu's suffering. It hasn't gotten better and there's no sign of that happening just yet. Madara is happy though. In the next chapter Zabuza and Kisame finally get some spotlight. At long last, right? I love those guys and some of you have been waiting too long to get some. :P


End file.
